The Child of Prophecy
by IamArchi
Summary: Born five years prior to the Anime/Manga, Naruto struggles to overcome obstacles with his friend Itachi Uchiha, and his Rinnegan. Featuring living Minato and Kushina. A/N - I will not be posting any more chapters on this story until my other one gets caught up; should be back in two weeks I believe.
1. Chapter 1

The Child of Prophecy

Chapter 1

"One more time Naruto-kun." A tall blond-haired man said to a four year old boy that looked very similar to him.

"Okay Tou(Father)-chan" Naruto said before running all the way up the tree with chakra and standing upside-down on it's branches.

This was the 20th time Naruto had done this in a row, which meant that his daily training was finished. Naruto gathered up all his shuriken and kunai, along with his clothes he had taken off to train.

It was a really hot summer day, although in the Land of Fire, where the Leaf Village sits, it is almost always scorching hot. Which is why Naruto and his father were headed into the village to get some ice cream. They always had ice cream at their house, but Naruto's father always wanted to go into town and check on the people he swore to protect when he took up the mantle of the Fourth Hokage. A lot of you might be wondering how Naruto knows about his father at such a young age, and the answer to that was that Naruto's parents got together exactly five years earlier than the anime, which meant that Naruto was four already, where as in the show he was still inside his mother's belly. Naruto's birthday was approaching on October 10, and that was actually a day before he was enrolled in the ninja academy.

Naruto had pleaded with his parents and they had eventually relented and let him enroll. They didn't want to pressure him into becoming a shinobi just because they were, but Naruto seemed to be extremely gifted in the ninja arts. He took to everything like a sponge, including his worst favorite class of History. He understood why it was necessary for him to learn about the history of the ninja world, but his parents weren't that good at it, so they enlisted some special help to teach history, The Third Hokage. The third Hokage was more than happy to teach young Naruto History, after all, he wasn't called the professor for nothing.

As Naruto and Minato walked through their village eating ice cream, they were often waved at or cheered for. Minato's skill and kindness were legendary, and that caused many villagers to look at him with extreme admiration. This look of course was given to his son as well because they knew they could expect great things from the son of the Hokage, even though the list of people who knew who the mother was very small. Only Naruto and top ANBU and personal Jonin knew that Kushina was the mother.

They were going to release the information on the day that Naruto joined the academy, which was in roughly a week. The rest of the walk was accompanied by the squeals of fan-girls, and the greetings from ninja. Kakashi even walked up to them and offered them a small "yo." Kakashi was on his father's team, and was going into the ANBU soon. Kakashi was very powerful, and he was very devoted to his job, probably because it helped repress his bad past. Kakashi was only a few years older than him, but was hailed as a prodigy.

Once they made it back to their house, Naruto took off to the kitchen. Even though that ice cream helped, he had spent most of the day outside training; therefore, he deserved some dinner. Luckily, his mom was already in charge of that, and before Naruto could even ask what they were eating, a plate full of food was shoved in front of his face and he set about vacuuming up his food. Most families eat rather peacefully and polite; however, Naruto's family was not one of them. His mom was just as bad as his, while his dad was only a tad better with his manners.

Soon after they had began eating, they were all done. Naruto took a shower then fell asleep, wondering how his last week before the ninja academy should be spent.

Timeskip 1 Week

This last week was torture for Naruto. He was so excited to join the academy that this last week passed sluggishly. The only upside was that today was his birthday, and tomorrow he would be joining the academy.

His parents had invited a lot of people to come to his birthday party, as they were going to announce their marriage as well. Jiraiya, Kakashi, The Third Hokage, and Mikoto were among the closest people to them that arrived. Some of the other guests were Clan Heads, The Shinobi Council, and important civilians. The only person Naruto was concerned about was the son of Mikoto. While a very pregnant Mikoto talked with his parents, her other son had made his way to Naruto's side, where they both stared of into the evening sky. After what seemed like a very long time, the unknown boy decided to speak.

"Hello. My name is Itachi. Judging by your similarity to the Fourth Hokage, you must be Naruto, and this party is for you. If that is so, then why are you way out here?"

"Well, Itachi. To be honest, I'm rather sick of the way people treat me. Unlike most four year olds, I seem to have a better understanding of the world. I'm sick of the way people treat me just because I'm the son of the Hokage."

"I bet they treat you like me, like a noble."

"How come they treat you like me, Itachi?"

"Well, I have unlocked my Sharingan much earlier than anyone in my clan. They all call me a protégé."

"Yea, that sounds a lot like me. I have all this pressure from the villagers saying that I will be stronger than Tou-san."

"Are you going to be starting the ninja academy tomorrow?"

"Yea, why?"

"Cause my Tou-san in enrolling me as well. Something about proving to the un-Uchiha's our strength." Itachi said while rolling his eyes.

"Well, Itachi I hope that you're in my class. Most of the kids our age are no where near as advanced as us, and I'd like someone to challenge me." Naruto said with a determined smile.

"Of course Naruto, I guess this makes us what you'd call friends."

"And Rivals. From here on out."

"As you wish Naruto. Well Kaa-san is calling me back over, it looks like the party is over. Have fun opening the presents, and I'll see you tomorrow."

The two boys walked back to the group before Mikoto took Itachi back home for the night. The entire way back, Mikoto was smiling at seeing her son finally make a friend his age.

Naruto was extremely happy, unlike normal kids who got toys, everyone knew that Naruto wanted to be a ninja so they all got him things to help.

Kakashi got him a chakra saber, which he clasped on his back. Jiraiya gave him the chance to sign the Toad Summoning Contract, which he signed without hesitation. The Third Hokage gave him a set of premium shuriken and spidersilk woven ninja wire. Naruto's father gave him a book on Advanced Chakra Theory. Naruto's mother on the other hand gave him an instruction manual for her kenjutsu style, which he would use Kakashi's gift for. And finally Mikoto gave him a nice pair of Shinobi sandals to replace his civilian shoes.

Naruto thanked everyone, and afterwards all that was left was Naruto, Minato, and Kushina. Just as they were about to head to bed, the unthinkable happened.

A Masked man suddenly appeared before Kushina and attempted to slash her throat; however, Minato didn't the title of being the fastest Shinobi alive for nothing and planted his foot directly in the assailants chest. At least, that's what should have happened. Instead, Minato's foot phased right through him. The Masked Man suddenly ran through a bunch of jutsus and all three of them were forced to teleport away from the fire that spewed from the assailants mouth.

When the trio appeared in their backyard, they were ready for anything. When the masked man appeared, Minato sped towards him followed closely by Kushina. This unfortunately led to Naruto being completely vulnerable, which cost them dearly. The Masked Man before them was nothing more than a clone. The real one appeared behind Naruto and grabbed him before disappearing into the night.

Naruto suddenly emerged from a ripple in space somewhere dark and dingy. The Masked man not far behind.

The Masked man was furious, he was unable to release the Kyuubi from Kushina by killing her and destroy the Leaf Village.

"Curse the Hokage for being so fast. Well I guess torturing you will help me relieve some stress. But I'm not really a physical tormentor, I'm more of a mental assailant. So if you will, look into my eyes."

Naruto tried to resist looking into the mans eyes, but a strong hand held his face up and pried his eyelid open. All Naruto saw was a spinning red eye before he was in a completely different place.

All around him was fire and the moon was an odd blood color.

"Welcome to Tsukuyomi, Naruto. In this world I control everything, and for the next few days I'll show you your worst nightmares."

Everything went wrong on the first image. It was only him killing Naruto's family, a fairly basic place to start the mind torture. However, something in Naruto awoke when he saw his entire family decimated by a strange man in a mask. Naruto was pulled out of Tsukuyomi in time to feel his eyes in searing pain before everything within a 50 meter radius was obliterated.

"No way!" The masked man said before crashing into a wall on the far side of the underground dungeon.

Naruto collapsed after his attack, but before he hit the ground, he was enveloped by a pair of strong arms.

"Naruto-kun, thank Kami you're okay son." The Fourth Hokage said before looking at the Masked man.

Before Minato could do anything, the masked man uttered a threat before merging into the ground, no doubt miles away by now.

Once he was gone, Minato teleported back to their house with Naruto is his arms, fast asleep. Kushina saw them both and ran to Naruto. Tears were streaking down her face at seeing her baby boy safe from harm. It was a good idea to mark Naruto with a Hirashin Seal (Minato's Teleporting Technique). So that they could teleport to him anywhere at any time. They quickly set Naruto in his bed before making their way to their bedroom, completely unaware of the change in Naruto's eyes.

The next morning was a little odd for Naruto. At first he thought he was dreaming because everything looked different. For the most part every detail just looked immensely defined. Although when Naruto would use Chakra to enhance his vision, like most Shinobi do, his entire vision went black and white. Somethings looked extremely blue, he could see two sources of blue light. One from the Kitchen downstairs, and one from a room down the hall. Naruto took a long time before deciding to ask his parents what was happening.

Naruto walked into the Kitchen like usual, and plopped down on his usual chair. Everything seemed like it was back to normal for Kushina. Although when she turned around to give Naruto his breakfast, she dropped the plate and gasped. When Minato heard the plate crash, he Hirashin'ed to the Kitchen with a kunai in his hand, ready to protect his family with his life. Once he looked around and noticed what Kushina was staring at, he too dropped what was in his hand; the kunai bouncing off the tile floor.

"Is that the-" Kushina stammered

"Yea." Minato barely managed to get out.

"The Rinnegan. Our son has the Rinnegan. I need to see Jiraiya, he once said he trained a boy with the Rinnegan, but he said that his pupils were an off violet, Naruto's are a powerful looking blue."

"Um. Is there something wrong with my eyes?" Naruto said worriedly. His vision was already weird, if his eyes looked different to other people who knows what could happen.

"Yes Naruto, go look in a mirror."

Naruto did just that, and what he saw shocked him. Instead of his normal blue eyes, the blue took up the entire eye, with three circles breaking them up into segments. When Naruto channeled Chakra into his eyes like earlier, his eyes began to glow and radiate power.

Minato could not of been prouder of the fact that his son was the Child of Prophecy that his sensei Jiraiya heard of from the Toad Sage. But he also knew that with this much power, he would need to start learning how to control it immediately.

They used a powerful illusion around Naruto's eyes to cover up the Rinnegan, no use having that kind of information circling around the ninja world. Then they told him about their new training schedule that centered around his Rinnegan, which would take place everyday after school. After they were done, they all three began to walk to the ninja academy.

Even though they were all in their separate worlds thinking about this new development, they made it to the class on time. When Naruto looked inside of the class room, he was happy to see his new friend Itachi with a seat available next to him. Naruto said a quick goodbye before sitting next to his friend.

"Good morning Naruto."

"Morning Itachi."

"It looks like we will be spending a year in this classroom."

"I thought we graduated in four years, Itachi."

"No, that is the maximum time, where most people graduate. You and I are strong enough to graduate early."

"Sweet! You mean I can be a genin in only a year!?"

"Everyone! Settle Down! It's time to begin class!" A Chuunin yelled from the front of the classroom.

"My name is Inuzuka Roshi, and ill be your instructor for the next four years. When you hear your name, say here." And with that brief introduction, He began calling out names. When he reached Namikaze Naruto, he seemed to pause and look around the room. When his eyes caught onto Naruto he smiled at seeing the blessed son of the Fourth, his idol.

Naruto already knew he wouldn't like it here, the instructor already looked like he wanted to pass Naruto that second.

Before kids could start talking, Roshi-sensei had started calling out names again. Once Itachi said here, the roll call was done, and class got underway.

Naruto was extremely annoyed with the way the teacher was instructing them. He was skipping over all the necessary information like abilities or strategies and going into teaching the kids the history of Chakra. Naruto knew that none of these kids were grasping what the instructor was talking about since most of them were staring off into the distance. Naruto already knew all of this stuff so he decided to mess around with his new eyes again.

Itachi was suddenly broken out of his meditation by a subtle release of powerful Chakra from his friend, Naruto. He resolved to ask Naruto about it after class was over because he did not want to incur the wrath of the teacher by talking during his lecture.

While Itachi was having his little inner resolution, Naruto was busy looking at different people and seeing their different Chakras. Some people had more of a solid flowing Chakra while other's ran rampant throughout the body, like fire within the Chakra coils.

Naruto also saw the different amounts of Chakra in the people. All the children minus Itachi and him had extremely low levels. Naruto was surprised to see that not only was his and Itachi's Chakra more potent, but it was also more abundant than the instructor's.

Class seemed to drone on and on that day, Naruto and Itachi were extremely unimpressed with the level of education they were receiving; however, they were very fortunate that they both had families to fall back on to learn the necessary things.

Once they were freed from their torture, the two boys left to go towards their respective homes. Itachi had completely forgotten to ask Naruto about the Chakra he was releasing. But who cares, he had advanced training to get done.

On the other side of the village, Naruto just made home to see that his godfather, Jiraiya was home. After learning why he was home, Naruto grew very excited. He was going to begin learning how to control the Rinnegan at Mount Myoboku, where he would also begin learning how to summon the toads. He was to do this everyday until he graduated from the academy.

Once Naruto got over the weird sensation of being teleported to Mount Myoboku, he was amazed at what he saw. Everything looked so different, all the colors were extremely more vivid to Naruto, but that could just be because everything was overflowing with Chakra. Even the rocks seemed to be carrying a certain amount of Chakra.

Since it was only Jiraiya and Naruto at Mount Myoboku, Naruto was allowed to unveil his eyes. Upon seeing them, Jiraiya was blown away at how much more power raidiated from them as opposed to Nagato, whose Rinnegan was significantly weaker.

Thankfully for Naruto, Jiraiya had already trained a Rinnegan user, so he knew exactly what steps to take.

First he told Naruto about the Paths that the Rinnegan would give to it's user. There was the path that controlled gravity, The Deva Path. There was the path that absorbed Chakra, The Preta Path. There was the path that controlled Summoning Creatures, The Animal Path. There was the path that controlled all things metal, The Asura Path. The path that controlled the human soul, and could read minds, The Human Path. The path that controlled life and death, The Outer Path. And finally the path that control the King of Hell, The Naraka Path. These seven paths made up the skills of a Rinnegan user.

Even though Naruto knew the paths, and what they did. Jiraiya knew the strain that it would put on Naruto's body, so he made a rule to teach Naruto one path every year, starting once he graduated from the ninja academy in four years. Naruto knew that he would graduate early, but he knew that he should wait for his body to get stronger before attempting the paths.

Naruto left Mount Myoboku feeling very tired with all the new information he got from Jiraiya. He spent the rest of the time at Mount Myoboku switching the Rinnegan on and off and dodging thrown weapons and also dodging ninjutsu attacks.

Once Jiraiya knew he had enough control to not hurt someone by accident, he left; leaving Naruto to tell his parents about his first day of school. Even though Naruto dreaded the low level of instruction he was getting at the academy, he was happy that he was making a friend with Itachi. He even got invited to train with Itachi. Naruto loved training with his parents, but they were really busy sometimes and Naruto was forced to train by himself. Now that Naruto had a training buddy, his skills would skyrocket.

And the end of the day, Naruto had only one thing to say to the world outside of his bedroom window, "Lookout world, Namikaze Naruto is coming, and I'm not stopping until the world recognizes me as the strongest Hokage ever!" And with that finally declaration, Naruto fell asleep, ready to spend the next year getting a lot stronger.


	2. Chapter 2

The Child of Prophecy

Chapter 2

Half of the school year had already come and passed. It was filled with Naruto and Itachi training their asses off every day, and the results were showing. Even though they were only five years old, they showed extreme skill far above their age group. Each one of them could demonstrate critical thinking skills worthy of advanced Chuunin; although, their physical strength and stamina were only at mid genin; they were five after all. Itachi, however, was unrestricted by age with the use of his Sharingan, and he put it to good use. His Sharingan had advanced to two tomoe in each eye, two-thirds of the way to being complete. Naruto, on the other hand, had taken to learning Shunshin(Quick Step), and had used it abundantly during their spars.

Since Itachi was always excellent as using deception, Naruto took it upon himself to always look past the initial attack because that was where the real Itachi would be waiting to strike. Neither of them learned anything in school; rather, they would use the classroom for training. When the teacher would look away, they would substitute themselves with another student before changing back when the teacher turned back around.

They were both growing splendidly as Shinobi; however, today was going to be a life-changing day for Itachi. He would finally ask Naruto why there was a strong genjutsu over his eyes. Normally, even the Sharingan wouldn't be able to notice something like this; however, Naruto had forgotten to control his powers once and had gone into what he called "Seven Paths Mode" where he would be able to notice all Chakra. Itachi had been looking at Naruto's eyes when it happened, and was able to see a light shimmering indicating power seeping out from his eyes. They were still in school today, but class was wrapping up soon. Then they could go spar, and Itachi would get his question asked.

Naruto was completely oblivious to Itachi's plan. He was practicing his quick step to use the least amount of Chakra possible. He was extremely good at Chakra control due to his Rinnegan, but he still was growing, and that caused his control to sometimes be less than perfect. He was currently Quick Stepping all over the class, the only indication he was even moving was the slight breeze that followed him. None of the students knew what he was doing, since their eyes weren't used to seeing fast moving things. The teacher would be able to see him slightly, but Naruto only did it when he looked away.

Even though this seemed like they were wasting class time, they were actually just trying to get the most out of their learning experience as possible.

Outside of training with each other, Itachi had learned the Great Fireball Jutsu, while Naruto was busy learning Summoning his toads. Most of the toads were quite friendly, he had yet to meet 'Bunta, who he had heard was the grouchiest Toad Boss of them all. His dad was the only one who was allowed to Summon Gamabunta. Even Jiraiya, the Legendary Toad Sage, had difficulty every time 'Bunta was Summoned. Naruto had learned several different attacks that the toads could pull off.

Back in class, Itachi was currently trying to trap Naruto in an illusion, while Naruto struggled to resist. Eventually Itachi got through, and Naruto was forced to watch as his favorite ramen stand burned to the ground. He silently prayed to the god of ramen to have mercy on Itachi before forcing Itachi out of his mind.

Itachi was the better of the two in Illusions, deception, and throwing weapons. Naruto, his polar opposite, was fluent in Taijutsu, unpredictability, and ninjutsu; his speed helped a lot with his fighting style that he took after his father, The Hummingbird Style. Their Kenjutsu was about equal, both learning from their moms. As for Chakra use, both were exceptional. Itachi was just a natural bord protégé with Chakra, while Naruto had the Rinnegan to help.

While they were both reviewing their strengths and weaknesses, the instructor finally let them out of class. Instead of running home and playing like the other kids, Naruto and Itachi went to their training ground to begin their afternoon-evening-nighttime training that they did every other day.

After a warm up of light stretches and a slow jog, the two began their initial spar. The first spar was nothing special, just a light warm up to show the opponent what he would need to work on during today's training.

With no sound at all, Naruto blurred away in Chakra enhanced speed. Itachi did the same and disappeared into the surrounding trees.

Naruto had his back pressed up against a large tree, he was several meters above the ground. His eyes were closed as he strained his ears to pick up any sound of Itachi. Suddenly, the sound of shuriken heading his way spilt the sounds of the forest. Naruto easily evaded the shuriken, only to find out that they were tied to a wire that was connected to Itachi. Itachi skillfully maneuvered the wires to trap Naruto to the tree as he ran through the hand seals for the Great Fireball Jutsu. Itachi pressed his hands up against his lips and a large ball of fire was sent speeding in Naruto's direction. It made contact and there was an explosion that threw tree back in all directions.

Before Itachi could even begin to think that Naruto had deceived him, he was kicked in the jaw. The force of the kick was strong, and it sent him rocketing towards the canopy tops. Once he got there, Itachi choose to wait for Naruto to arrive. He didn't have to wait long as suddenly Naruto was right in front of him, attempting to kick him again. Although this time, Itachi was the one who dealt the blow. Naruto was careful with his hit, but Itachi planned way ahead for this hit. The moment Naruto swung his leg out, Itachi elbowed Naruto in the abdomen, sending him crashing into a tree nearby.

The fight continued like this for awhile, each party getting hit an even number of times before counter-attacking. Right before they were going to step it up a notch, their training bell chimed, signaling the end of the fight. With a small groan of disappointment, both fighters fell back to the ground and made their way back to the training field. As they were walking, they couldn't help but admire the damage they caused to the surrounding area. Burnt trees, scorched ground, Toad footprints, and many weapons could be found all over.

"Itachi, I think what you need to work on the most is your dodging skills. It seemed like you hesitated too long before dodging, and that cost you my right hook, you remember?"

"I agree. As for you, your perception of your surroundings needs to increase. You didn't notice my ninja wire until it was too late, and you snagged yourself on that tree limb once."

"Yea yea. I got the message. Let's work on yours first, get ready to dodge only." And with that being said, Naruto threw five kunai at Itachi's vital points, forcing him to dodge each and every one of them separately in order to survive. Before Itachi could regain his footing, Naruto sped forward and unleashed a barrage of attacks, slowly enough that Itachi could dodge them, but fast enough so that it would help train Itachi.

Up next it was Naruto's turn being attacked. His job was to stay in an area while Itachi threw Kunai and Shuriken from every where around him. Needless to say, he was covered in quite a few scratches before he was done.

When they were done with that, they began running up and down trees in order to maintain perfect control while also enlarging their Chakra pools. Like always, they lasted about the same amount before dropping back to the ground, always competing with each other for who stayed up longer. Their next thing to do was Ninjutsu training, which they did swimmingly. Itachi with his Great Fireball Jutsu and Naruto with his Summoning.

After they finished, it was getting dark, and they decided to have their no holds barred sparring match as a finale. The fight was something that should have gone down in history as the best fight between 5 year olds in the world. It was basically chaos out there. Naruto, however, was the one standing at the end, Itachi had reaped his demise by underestimating Naruto's drive to win.

Just as they were about to part ways, "Hey Naruto?"

"Yea Itachi?"

"Why do you hide your eyes behind a Genjutsu?"

Silence followed his question as Naruto debated Quick Stepping away.

"You don't have to tell me, I just thought you could trust your best friend is all." Itachi said before slowly walking away. Before he got far, Naruto Shunshined directly in front of him with the Genjutsu on.

"Watch." Naruto commanded.

Just as he commanded, power poured out of Naruto's eyes and the Genjutsu was lifted.

"I have a dojutsu(Eye Technique) like you Itachi. It's called the Rinnegan. You can't tell anyone that I have it or else bad things will happen, like assassination attempts."

"What does it do?"

"I don't know yet, I start being taught how to use it when I turn 12."

"I've never heard of a third dojutsu before. I'm interested in seeing what it's capable of when you turn 12. Well Kaa-san will be angry if I stay out any later, see ya tomorrow Naruto." And with that, Itachi disappeared.

Naruto walked back to his house feeling a lot better know that his best friend knew his most protected secret. Even though he wasn't supposed to let anyone know until he was strong enough to defend himself, Naruto was glad he could tell Itachi.

The days succeeding then were no different than the one proceeding then, only Naruto and Itachi were getting extremely powerful. Although each were branching off more in their own styles. Itachi became a genjutsu and ninjutsu user, while Naruto choose more of a taijutsu and kenjutsu style, since he knew he would be learning the Rinnegan techniques later on.

Months and months flew by as Naruto and Itachi trained ever harder. Soon, their ending fights looked less like academy students and more like Chuunin fights. Far sooner than expected, a year had passed and the duo were being selected to join an older student and become a genin team under a teacher named Hagura. The team was extremely unbalanced, with Naruto and Itachi soaring ahead while their arrogant but weak female teammate was carried along with them. For Naruto and Itachi, the Chuunin exams didn't come fast enough. But eventually, they were given their forms to fill out for particpating.

The first two exams were the same, with Naruto and Itachi using their superior intellect to take down more powerful opponents. The third exam is where it got tricky. The third exam is similar to a one-on-one gladiator match where you fight your opponent in front of a large crowd of Shinobi and Civilians. The first couple matches were rather interesting to watch, especially a Nara(Shadow Clan) whose intellect exceeded even their own. Unfortunately, none of the matches so far were worthy of promoting them, since they defeated their opponents too quickly to really show any skill.

Eventually, there were only two fighters remaining. Naruto and Itachi. The amount of tension in the air was surreal. The two most powerful up-and-coming ninja of the Leaf, squaring off against each other in front of a whole stadium. With a loud yell "Begin!" both fighters rocketed towards each other at high speeds; this was where all their training would pay off.

Naruto made the first move by swinging his fist towards Itachi's face, intent on getting the first strike in. It was all for naught when his fist phased straight through Itachi's face, indicating that he was striking a clone.

Itachi, seeing an opening in Naruto's guard, attempted to hit Naruto in the chest, but just like Naruto, Itachi was disappointed when his attack didn't make contact. They both knew that they were not going to be able to score a hit by fighting like this, it was only to impress the judges and get them promoted.

After many unsuccessful rounds, Itachi stepped up the game by launching a Great Fireball Jutsu at Naruto. Naruto successfully countered with the appropriate water jutsu from his Summoning Toad. When the two attacks collided, the blast kicked up immense amounts of sand, covering the two fighters from view. The only way the crowd knew there was a fight going on in that mini sandstorm was the sounds of clashing metal and the occasional ninjutsu attack.

When the dust cleared, the crowd was witness to one of the most memorable scenes of these young boys lives. Itachi and Naruto were standing across from each other, neither looking like they were going to remain standing much longer. Slowly, they both started limping towards each other. Once they reached within 5 meters of each other, they both promptly collapsed, unconscious before they even touched the ground.

"Since neither fighter can continue, this match will result in a DRAW!" The proctor yelled to the stands. A chorus of cheers and applause was his reply, the crowd greatly enjoyed that final match showcasing the Hokage's son vs. the Uchiha protégé.

Up in the stands, several judges were discussing the promotions for the Chuunin Exams. They finally decided that there would be four promotions; Naruto, Itachi, a girl named Anko, and a boy named Iruka. The other two were unable to make it to the final fight, but they both showed an acceptable amount of forethought and ninja skills. The promotion for Naruto and Itachi was obvious, the level these kids were at was shocking.

While the judges were finalizing their picks for Chuunin, Naruto and Itachi were both in the hospital. Neither one was badly hurt, just exhaustion and Chakra loss. They would be back to normal by tomorrow, although they had to be ready for their new team as Chuunin.

Minato Namikaze looked down at his son's sleeping face beaming with pride. Even he was not as gifted as his son was, before long Naruto would be surpassing him. But as a parent, it was his job to make sure that his son would become better than him.

Across from Minato was Mikoto, Itachi's mom, who was holding a little baby Sasuke in her arms. She also was extremely proud of her son for being so strong at such a young age. Itachi's father was not there because he refused to attend due to Itachi finishing in a draw. Instead for following her husband home, she went to go see how Itachi was doing.

Once they realized their respective sons were going to be sleeping for awhile, the two parents went home. One back to the Uchiha complex, and the other back to the Hokage Tower.

Four hours later, Naruto began to open his eyes. He looked over to see Itachi was still snoring quietly, and snuck out of the hospital room. Even since Naruto was born, he hated hospitals, which is why he was currently trying to sneak into his home without letting his mom know that he left the for Naruto, his luck had just ran out because as soon as he raided the fridge, he heard a cough behind him. He turned quickly to see his mom flicking him across the head.

"Mister, what are you doing outside of your hospital bed?" Kushina demanded.

"Uh, they said I could go?" Naruto stammered before realizing how lame that sounded, everyone knew that the hospital always kept people late, never early.

Kushina stomped forward menacingly and Naruto closed his eyes and awaited the pain. Instead, he got a hug and a congratulations on his match. He was told to go take a shower and wash up for dinner, which he complied with instantly. After everything that happened today, he was extremely hungry.

At the dinner table, the room was filled with laughter as the little family recounted funny moments during the Exams, and also hearing Naruto's rendition of his fight against the "Always Hiding Itachi." Apparently, Itachi took the deception thing a little too seriously and always sent out a clone to replace him when things started to get intense.

Once they were done going over the Chuunin Exams, Minato took Naruto out to their backyard to show him a new move that he promised to teach Naruto when he was old enough, the Rasengan.

When Naruto got outside, he was confused at first when his father handed him a water balloon.

"The Rasengan is learned in three steps Naruto, rotation, power, and control. The first step requires you to use nothing but your Chakra to pop the balloon. The hint is to use the rotation to force your Chakra to stretch the balloon until it pops." Minato said before standing back and gesturing for Naruto to try.

Naruto condensed his Chakra into his hand and tried to rotate his Chakra. What he got was an explosion that sent him flying backwards on his ass.

"Let me show you what it looks like so that you know what you are going to recreate." Minato said before a glowing Rasengan appeared on his palm. Naruto took a few seconds staring at the Rasengan before attempting to do step one again. Instead of it exploding like it did last time, the balloon popped. Unfortunately, the ballon had to rip from every side at once to truly master step one, Naruto's just cut a hole in the side, and the balloon popped from there.

The rest of the evening was spent with Naruto attempting to do step one right, with Minato and Kushina watching on and off the entire time. Minato and Kushina were actually both inside when they heard a an extremely loud "Finally!" before a soft thud hit the ground. When they walked outside, they were welcome to the scene of several popped balloon pieces and an unconcious Naruto lying face down on the ground. They scooped up Naruto and took him back inside the house. There, they threw him in his bed and tucked him in because even though he was extremely skilled for his age, he still was there baby boy and six year olds still could be tucked in. Tomorrow would be an interesting day for Naruto since he would be meeting his Chuunin squad that he would hopefully be with for years, but his parents knew that he and Itachi would both become too strong for Chuunin very soon. With that final thought, the Namikaze household fell asleep for the night.


	3. Chapter 3

The Child of Prophecy

Chapter 3

"Welcome you four, today will be the beginning of a new chapter in your lives. From here on out, you four will be a team, with Mesuri here as your team leader. Even though all of you are Chuunin, she has the most experience out of the field and therefore you three will be under her direct command." The Fourth Hokage said before looking at Naruto with pride. His son was growing up so fast.

"Alright team, meet me at training ground 7 so I can evaluate your skills and determine how we will fight." Mesuri said before blurring away. The other three disappeared as well, but not before Naruto gave a slight wave to his dad.

Once they got to the training ground, Mesuri had them all stand shoulder to shoulder facing her.

"Alright, I want to hear your personality type, your preferred attacks, and where you think you stand on this team. You, blondie, you're first."

"My name is Naruto, and my personality type is calm, but I love fighting strong opponents. My preferred attacks revolve around my Summoning Toads, which I use exclusively for my ninjutsu arsenal, and my speed for taijutsu. If I had to logically place where I stood on this team, I would say I'm the initial fighter used to take out large numbers of opponents, or single opponents."

"Alright good, I think that will suffice. Uchiha, you're next."

"I am Itachi. My personality type is calm and quiet. I enjoy testing my strength against strong opponents, but I prefer to not fight at all if possible. My attacks, like most Uchiha, are strong fire attacks. I am a good long range fighter with my excellent aim, but I can be used for support up close with my sharingan."

"Good. Up next, girl with spiky hair."

"My name is Anko, and I've easily excitable and awesome. I don't really have main attacks except for decent taijutsu and my extreme flexibility. I see myself in the front with the cute blonde because I can be extremely deadly with my taijutsu."

"Well, now that we all know each other, I want the rest of the day to be spent with you three using collaboration to take me down. We are all the same rank, so I will not be taking it easy on you just because two of you are 7 and the other is 12. I have been a chuunin for 10 years so I will naturally be stronger, but if you all work together, you should be able to take down a single opponent no matter their skill."

The three genin then left to devise a strategy for fighting her. At first Anko refused to listen to any idea they had because she thought that she was older and deserved to make the plan. Eventually though, she began to feel excluded when they started making plans without her, so she submitted to them and began to listen to their plan with rapt attention. Soon enough, they all disappeared into the forest, ready to enact their plan.

Soon enough, the air was filled with sounds of kunai racing through the air, and the resulting explosions from the explosives attached to the kunai handles. When the dust cleared, Mesuri was standing alone and perfectly fine; however, she was on alert because she knew that the first attack had just been a diversion. Suddenly, the ground beneath her feet began to crack, and two hands launched onto her ankles. Or at least they would have, had she not substituted with a log. Unfortunately for her, that was just what they wanted. When she appeared, she was suddenly subjected to a raging inferno aimed in her direction. With a flurry of hand seals, she was protected by a wall of water, but the drawback was that the area was now bathed in mist, perfect for Itachi's Sharingan, which could see Mesuri's chakra.

Mesuri had her guard up, and was trying in vain to peer through the dense mist when she was suddenly struck in the leg by a strong kick. When she went to counter, the assailant had already disappeared into the mist. Mesuri was subjugated to this for the next few seconds, as Itachi would circle around and strike her where she was unprotected then vanish. Eventually, Mesuri realized that she could not protect herself well enough here and flared her Chakra to evaporate the mist. Upon looking around once the mist cleared, Mesuri wished she had stayed in the cover of the mist. A water dragon, courtesy of one of Naruto's Summoning Toads, slammed into her chest and threw her against a tree on the far side of the clearing. Before she could get back up, Mesuri's clothing was riddled with kunai and shuriken, pinning her to the tree.

"Good job squad. You all did extremely well, I give." Mesuri managed to get out between pants.

Once she gave up, Anko retrieved her weapons from Mesuri's person, and Naruto sent his Toad back to Mount Myoboku.

"We did awesome team! I think I'm gonna enjoy being on a team with you two shorties." Anko said exuberantly.

"I'm not short! I'm just young! Just you watch, I'll be taller than you someday." Naruto yelled back at her.

"Naruto, it's best if we don't argue with our new teammate, at least she's better than our genin teammate." Itachi said, trying to calm Naruto down.

"Yea, that's true Itachi. Well Anko, you did really well enacting our plan, I think we will be a rather good team." Naruto agreed.

"Well, now that you three feel so compatible, can you take me to the hospital, whoever was hitting me in the mist ruined my ability to walk." Mesuri said while leaning against a tree.

The three quickly apologized for going too far, but Mesuri who have none of it. She said that she was happy to have such a powerful team under her rest of the day was spent training with Naruto and Itachi. They had tried to get Anko to come, but she said something about meeting up with a friend at a Dango(Sweet Meatballs) stand.

"Are you going to tell this team about your eyes, Naruto?" Itachi asked while they were doing their final spar.

"Nah, I heard that you only have to spend half a year as a Chunnin before you can apply for ANBU, so I don't think I'll grow close enough to these two. Only my parents, Jiraiya, and you know, and I plan to keep it that way until I have mastered at least one path." Naruto replied before ducking under a jab, he rataliated with a cross that Itachi blocked with his forearm. Since they were both advancing at the same speed, their spars were always evenly matched because whenever one would get stronger, the other would hurry to catch up. It was an extremely effective way to train, and made them way stronger than most Chunnin out there. The rest of the training went well, and both boys went home and slept.

Naruto awoke to the sound of gears turning. He paled and jumped out of bed as quick as possible but he was not fast enough. In no time at all, he was drenched with freezing cold water, courtesy of his mother rigging up another prank to use on him. The rule was that until he "survived" the next prank, he would not be taught any more kenjutsu techniques from his mom. Everytime he "survived" he would be taught a new technique, but it also meant that the next prank would be at a higher level. He would always look back on them as good training tactics; however, right now all he could do was curse his mother and take a hot shower.

"That's what you get for coming home so late again!" Naruto heard his mother shout from outside of his room. Naruto was sorry that he couldn't spend anymore time with his family but because of his desire to be the strongest Hokage ever, he had to train extensively.

Naruto quickly took a shower and donned his gear. After a breakfast spent with his small family, he left to go meet his Chuunin squad.

Naruto found out that he was second to arrive, the first being their captain. They waited patiently, and soon enough Itachi appeared in a Shunshin(Quick Step). Anko was there a few minutes later.

"Okay team, now that we are all gathered I have a mission for us from the Hokage. This mission is B-rank and will take place in the southern region of the Land of Fire. The details of this mission are straightforward. We are to remove the threat of a small group of missing-nins. The reports say there are three of them attacking small villages and pilfering what's left. They have hit here, here, and here, their path takes them to this village, where we will ambush them and kill them. Any questions?" Mesuri asked.

After seeing no one move, Mesuri took off towards the southern gate, her squad close behind. Within the next few minutes, Naruto's squad was leaping through the trees. At the speed they were traveling, they would reach the village by nightfall.

"Do we know where the missing-nin are from?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, we have reports that they are from Suna(Wind Country)." Mesuri replied.

"If that is the case, we can guess their attacks." Naruto continued.

"Suna is famous for their puppetry, and their war fans." Itachi listed off from memory.

"Correct Itachi, but never expect the fight to ever be that easy. More than likely, they will be regular shinobi with no particular talents, just the usual shinobi arts, which means no planned tactic will work." Mesuri warned.

The journey from then on was passed by in silence, with the occasional bird chirping and other nature sounds. Just as the sun was about to set, they arrived in the village.

"Listen here team, the missing-nins will attack here tonight, so we must come up with a defensive plan by that and prepare to enact it. Anko, I want to to organize all the villagers and restrict them to their houses, this fight will probably be dangerous. I'll go speak with the village leader and let him know I'm here, while I'm doing that Naruto and Itachi are to create a plan that I can hear when I return. Go!" Mesuri ordered before vanishing in a Shunshin.

As soon as she left, Naruto and Itachi began evaluating the village for weak spots and choke points. Eventually, they had a basic understanding of how to go about ambushing the missing-nin. When Anko and Mesuri returned, they were also told the plan. Mesuri agreed to the plan and they all went to their assigned places. Naruto would be guarding the left entrance, Anko would be guarding the right, and Mesuri would be guarding the main entrance. Itachi was placed in the middle of all of them and had a vantage point to see each of the easily. He would be the back up for anyone who needed help in this battle.

The team of four didn't have to wait long before a shinobi walked right past Mesuri. Soon enough, another shinobi appeared near Anko and continued into the village. Naruto was completely hidden when the third and final member of the missing-nins appeared directly in front of him. With a signal from Itachi, all three Konoha ninja's struck. Anko and Naruto's attack went off well. They both got an early hit before the enemy knew they were even there. Mesuri's opponent, however, saw Itachi's signal and was quick enough to dodge Mesuri's swipe.

The fights were even for Anko and Naruto, both opponents were bleeding and tired while they were only minorly winded. Mesuri, on the other hand, was losing badly. It seemed that her opponent was a Jonin and was destroying Mesuri's guard. Itachi quickly went to assist Mesuri, but not before Mesuri was knocked out by a hit to the head. Itachi was then forced to fight a Jonin all by himself. Itachi was quite good for his age, and even his rank. But still, it was a one sided fight as he was forced to dodge attack after attack, never able to strike back.

While Itachi was busying avoiding death, Naruto was able to counter from a sloppily done attack and drove a kunai through the other mans skull. He then went to check on the progress of the other two. He saw that Anko was almost finished herself, the enemy wobbling on her feet. He then went to check on Mesuri, only to find Mesuri on the ground covered in blood and Itachi dodging attack after attack. Naruto disappeared to aid Itachi. He re-appeared just behind the Jonin, intent on slashing the older man's throat. Instead, he had to duck to avoid a well thrown kunai. Although, this gave Itachi enough time to slash the man's thigh. The man was brought down to one knee when he went through hand seals at a rapid pace.

"Even though this technique will kill me, I will not give you the satisfaction of living. This attack is too fast to dodge, and too strong to block with any element! Say goodbye kids!" The man roared before the entire place was flooded with poison, a third thing Suna was famous for that they forgot. Itachi knew they were dead, he had nothing that could save them and nothing Naruto ever used would be enough. Itachi closed his eyes and waited for his death, now that he had seen the poison, he knew it was not the normal kind. It was a poison that was absorbed through your skin, there was no way to dodge or block, unless you could literally repel EVERYTHING away from you at once, the particles were just too small.

"SHINRA TENSEI!(Almighty Push)" Naruto roared. And suddenly Itachi and Naruto were witness to something truly spectacular. Everything around them was pushed away and obliterated, with them at the epicenter. Afterwards, Naruto fell back on his back, entirely spent from using that strange technique. Itachi soon followed, and when Anko came back, all she saw was Naruto, Itachi, and Mesuri all lying on the ground, all of them breathing. She was able to carry them back to an inn where they slept until noon the following day.

When Naruto awoke, he felt funny. He felt a little more complete than he ever had in the past. He asked Itachi what had happen and he was extremely surprised that he had learned a Rinnegan technique without instruction. He knew now that he was ready to begin learning from Jiraiya and resolved to letting his dad know of what transpired during this mission. Once he team was all awake and healed up, they set out towards Konoha, this time at a much slower place because they were all a little sore and drained. They finally arrived and checked into the village after two days of travel. The first thing they did when they arrived was report to the Hokage, as was the rule.

When they arrived at the Hokage's office, Minato's eyes lit up with happiness at seeing his son return virtually unharmed, but he did not let his happiness dictate his actions, he was the Hokage after all. Once they were done reviewing the mission, the Hokage allowed them to leave, but while Mesuri and Anko left, Naruto and Itachi remained behind.

"Dad, could you ask the ANBU hiding in your office to leave for a sec, I have something to tell you."

"Yes, of course. ANBU." Hokage ordered. With his command, the four ANBU is his office disappeared.

"Dad, something else happened on this mission that our teammate and captain don't know about."

With this, Minato grew more serious, "What happened, son?"

"You remember in the mission report how we defeated the third man by flaring our Chakra and spinning, thus creating that little crater that Anko found us lying in?"

"Yes, what about that?"

"It wasn't us spinning, I used a Rinnegan path by accident."

"Interesting. How did you even know how to do a path, son?"

"I didn't know how, there was poison coming at us from all directions and I just wanted it to be repelled, and then I shouted a jutsu I never heard before and suddenly all the gravity around us was pushed away." Naruto explained.

"I never knew the Rinnegan was instinctual. I suppose it's time to see Jiraiya again, I'll send out a message through the frogs to summon him back here. When he gets back, I hope you are ready for some intense training. I know you and Itachi train together, and I hope this won't upset the balance of power between your rivalry." Minato said with mirth. Clearly, he didn't care if his son was stronger than Itachi. The Uchiha could get knocked down a peg or two. Recently, some troubling things were coming his way from the Uchiha.

"Alright you two. Dismissed."

"With that, Naruto and Itachi went to their respective houses to get some much earned rest. It had truly been a stressful mission where they almost died had Naruto not used the Rinnegan powers. Itachi was thankful for his friend, but he was a tad upset he could do nothing in that scenario, even with his fully evolved Sharingan. He decided to go visit the Uchiha Shrine to learn more about the Sharingan, now that he had to compete with Naruto learning how to control the Rinnegan. Itachi stayed up all night researching something called the Mangekyo Sharingan.


	4. Chapter 4

The Child of Prophecy

Chapter 4

"Naruto-chan! How ya been, my boy?" the frog named Pa asked.

"I've been great Pa-sama!" Naruto responded as he entered Mount Myoboku to begin his fifth month of Rinnegan training. Naruto was extremely busy perfecting his paths, which thankfully didn't take away from his missions with his Chunnin squad.

The squad didn't have any more close calls like the mission where Naruto first awakened his Deva Path, something that they were all thankful for. Since Naruto started his training, he has unlocked two more paths that he has almost mastered. The Preta Path, and the Animal Path. There were no difficulties with the Preta path, but the Animal Path came with some problems. Because the Animal Path allowed the user to Summon any type of animal and control it entirely, the toads had Naruto swear to never Summon them with the Rinnegan and bind them to his will. With the regular Toad Summoning Contract, Naruto could Summon every toad from Mount Myoboku, but if he used the Animal Path the toads would be artificial and slave-like, something the Toads forbid.

While Naruto was training at Mount Myoboku, Itachi used his time to research extensively on the Mangekyo Sharingan. What he found out allured him, and repulsed him. The powers that he could gain would be amazing, the Mangekyo Sharingan gave it's users either Amaterasu(Black Flames from the Sun God), Tsukuyomi(Ultimate Genjutsu from the Goddess of the Moon), Susano'o(Shield), Kamui(Teleportation to the Other Realm), Izanagi (Escape Destiny), and Izanami (Lock Destiny). But the drawbacks were equally as terrible. The first drawback was that, in order to awaken the Mangekyo, one must kill their closest friend. The second drawback was that the moment the Mangekyo is awakened, the user begins to go blind and becomes extremely sick. Itachi was sure that by replacing the user's blind eyes with another's would reverse the effects, however, only one person in the Uchiha clan had the Mangekyo awakened at this time, Shisui. Itachi resolved to asking Shisui more about this advanced eye technique.

Back to Mount Myoboku, Naruto was busy dodging left and right, trying to stay alive while Ma and Pa threw ninjutsu after ninjutsu at his. Because they were both elder toad sages, they had plenty of Chakra to spare for atacks against Naruto. Naruto was actually flying ontop of a Summoned Bird, while simultaneously dodging ninjutsu and defending from Jiraiya's taijutsu. From an objective standpoint, he was doing something akin to Jonin level training, but because he was the fortold Child of Prophecy who contained the legendary Rinnegan, he had to get strong quickly in order to protect the world from whatever was coming. A savior didn't awake unless an equally powerful enemy was on the horizon.

Naruto was brought out of his thoughts by a sudden need to duck extremely fast, and he was not a second too soon. Jiraiya's leg flashed right over his head, with enough force to send him flying for a couple kilometers. Instead, he ducked under it and retaliated with a punch to Jiraiya's chest, which was deftly blocked. Unfortunately for Jiaraiya, Naruto grabbed ahold of his arm and began sucking away his Chakra, courtesy of the Preta Path. Soon enough, Jiraiya was forced to jump away or risk losing the fight against an eight year old. Even though this eight-year old was powerful, he still was only a kid and losing to him would be humiliating.

Just as they regained their bearings, an alarm clock rung, signaling the end of the fight, and the training for the day. With a curt goodbye, Jiraiya and Naruto went back to Konoha for Naruto to go to bed and for Jiraiya to head out on another long term mission. Naruto had become a master in three paths, and was learning a fourth, so they could take a break since the last few were border-line inhuman. Naruto had no interest in Summoning the King of Hell, or ripping out people's souls, so he was content with learning just combat paths. With that final thought, Naruto joined his family for dinner before heading off to see Itachi for their evening training.

When Naruto got to the training ground, he knew something was wrong. Itachi was running late, and he never was late. Naruto used his Preta Path to feel all the Chakra around him and located Itachi's, with a sudden Quick Step he was gone.

Naruto was flying through the tree's far faster than usual because he sensed something wrong with Itachi's Chakra flow, like he was having an internal turmoil. Not soon enough, Naruto was standing behind Itachi, the latter looking off the side of a waterfall sadly. Burning black flames danced all around, and the smell of burning bodies assaulted Naruto's olfactory sense.

"Itachi, what's wrong?" Naruto asked.

"Shisui, my closest cousin in the Uchiha Clan, killed himself. He said that a man named Danzo had poisoned him and tried to take his Mangekyo Sharingan, he fled to here but was followed by Danzo's men; he died soon after I arrived. When I saw him die like that, I don't know, everything got all hazy and my eyes started burning. Before I knew it, Danzo's men were all burning and my eye started bleeding. I awakened the Magekyo." When Itachi said that, he turned around to face Naruto, his eyes morphing into a pin wheel shape.

"Itachi, I'm so sorry about your loss." Naruto said with his head down low.

"Naruto, I'm going to need your help." Itachi said before removing Shisui's eyes.

"Itachi, what are you doing!?" Naruto yelled.

"Listen Naruto, even though this incident is horrendous, there is a shinning light behind it all. The one thing Shisui said to me before he died was that he knew Danzo would harvest his eyes, so he wanted me to protect them. Here comes the other part. When someone awakens the eye that I just did, they are able to become much more powerful at a high cost, blindness and sickness. I will be able to cancel this effect by replacing my failing eyes with Shisui's, and then we will keep my old eyes safe, in case Sasuke may need them one day. I need you to help me remove my current ones and help me transfuse the new ones in."

"Itachi, I'm not a medical shinobi, I know nothing about transplanting eyes!" Naruto said.

"With the Sharingan, all I'll need is the right amount of Chakra and the rest will heal itself. With your eyes, I'm sure you'll be able to control the right amount."

"Well, I still don't know about this, but you're my best friend and I do this one favor. Tell me what to do."

And with that statement, the two began the tedious process of transplanting Shisui's eyes into Itachi. Naruto was the one doing most of the work since Itachi was writhing in pain on the ground. Eventually, both eyes were implanted without any mistakes. Naruto wrapped a roll of bandages around Itachi's eyes to stop the bleeding and to help him keep them closed for 24 hours, which was how long they would take before they were safe to open. Even though, Itachi couldn't use any form of the Sharingan for an entire day after that.

Naruto knew that Itachi would have some trouble at his house, so he invited him back to his. Itachi sent a note to his house letting his family know where he was going to be sleeping, and the duo set off for the Namikaze estate.

There was a bit of a problem explaining to Naruto's parents about what happened with Shisui and Itachi's eyes, but eventually the two were allowed to go to bed, it had been a long day for both of them.

When Naruto awoke, he went over and helped Itachi out of bed and helped him walk to the kitchen. In the kitchen was a medical ninja who healed Itachi's eyes enough so he could open them, but he was still forbidden from using the Sharingan for awhile. The group of four sat down and had breakfast, with Minato and Kushina asking about Itachi. They wanted to know who was the person that Naruto had become best friends with. After a while, Minato asked a question that the two eight-year olds had been thinking about for the last couple months.

"By the way you two, a group of ANBU reported to me this morning that they were going to begin recruiting a few new members. If you two are interested, they had mentioned both of you by name. The ANBU registration is located in room 107 in the Hokage Tower, and they will expecting you in an hour. If you have no desire to become ANBU, then don't show up. But if you do, then this will be your only chance since ANBU don't send out personal invitations twice."

"Sweet! We can join already!?" Naruto excitedly jumped around while Itachi meerly smiled at the achievement of being requested personally to join.

"It appears that you two will be there then. Well I wish you good luck, the ANBU can be unforgiving to those who are unprepared." Minato said before he went off to the Hokage Tower to resume to resume his constant battle against the bane of all Kage's: paperwork. Kushina, on the other hand, got ready to go train her group of genin for the day. None of them were extremely special, but it gave Kushina something to do during the day since both of her boys were out.

Speaking of one of her boys, Naruto had left along with Itachi to get ready for the ANBU, and to also tell their Chuunin Squad of their change. Mesuri was of course fine with it, she had seen many groups of teammates soar to higher ranks without her and merely congratulated them before walking away to get a new team. Anko, on the other hand, was really sad about them leaving her and made them promise to contact her at least once a week, she then left to find Mesuri and her new squadmates.

The duo continued onward to the Hokage Tower at a slow pace, with Itachi's eyes getting better with every step. Eventually, they arrived outside of room 107, and proceeded to knock. Instead of someone answering, the door flashed open and two senbon were thrown at their heads. Itachi was able to angle his forehead protector downwards to deflect the senbon, while Naruto was quick enough to catch it out of thin air. Itachi would have been able to do that if he had the Sharingan, but of course he couldn't use it right now.

The two settled in a defense stance, expecting another attack;however, they received applause instead. Suddenly, lights flickered on and the room was illuminated to reveal a masked female sitting on top of a desk. They also were able to see a small pile of blood on the floor right where they were standing. Upon looking to their left, they could make out the form of a medical ninja.

"Well done new recruits, you passed the first test." The woman on the desk said with no hint of emotion, like the entirety of the ANBU.

Once they relaxed, Naruto and Itachi realized what was going on. This was a test to see cautiousness and quick reflexes. The ones who failed were healed by the medic ninja and sent away. It appeared that they had passed well enough, Itachi slightly grumpy that he didn't have the Sharingan to be as fast as Naruto, who used his Rinnegan hidden under a genjutsu to slow the senbon with gravity before plucking it out of the air.

"Do not relax just yet. There are two more tests for you two to pass before you can become a member." The ANBU female said before signaling them to go into a connected room where three other people were. They took their seat near the middle but close enough to an exit should this be another test. Two people in the room with them looked like they were Jonin already, while the third looked only a few years older than them. His hair was a bright white color and was spiked up to the left a little. Naruto recognized him as Kakashi instantly and offered him a small wave. Kakashi was sitting at the front of the room on top of a desk, while the four of them were sitting in chairs facing him. It appeared he would be the leader for the next test.

An hour slowly rolled by as five more recruits entered the room, but they could tell from the sound of screams that many more were being declined entrance. The five recruits that entered were also much older than Naruto and Itachi. The majority of the people in the room with Naruto were in their early thirties, with Naruto and Itachi at 8 and Kakashi at 13. Soon enough, there was a single loud knock on the door, and Kakashi began explaining the second test.

"We will only be taking four recruits to the next test, so that means that five of you will not be passing this one. The first test measures reflexes and how cautious you are, and this test is a bit different. If the first test is a defensive one, then this one would be considered it's opposite. To put it simply, this is a race combined with intelligence gathering. You have two hours to make it into the hidden ANBU headquarters. We will only be accepting the first four participants, so you might wanna hurry. And by the way, the test started five minutes ago."

As soon as he said that, seven of the nine recruits leapt out the window in order to locate the ANBU base. Although, Naruto and Itachi stayed behind because Itachi had a hunch.

"I do wonder why you two stayed behind, perhaps you are going to tell me that you give up, but because I know both of you I doubt that would ever happen. So why are you still here?" Kakashi asked.

"Well, to put it simply, why go hunt down the information outside when all the information we need is right here. You are in ANBU, and therefore you know exactly where the base is." Itachi said

"While you are correct, I will not simply tell you as it would be considered cheating. If that is all-" Before he could move, Naruto had already grabbed him in a full nelson.

"Wow, excellent movement. Very good job restraining me, but a quick substitution will still get me ou-" Once again, he was stopped. But not by any kind of attack, rather, he was stopped because Naruto was using his Preta Path to control the Chakra within Kakashi and rstrain him internally from using a substitution jutsu, while at the same time sucking away most of his Chakra. Before long, Kakashi was on one knee panting from losing so much Chakra in such a short time. He had wasted so much trying to escape, but that only cost him in the end.

"Itachi." Naruto panted. His Preta Path took a lot out of him and Kakashi was extremely strong.

Kakashi looked up in Itachi's eyes expecting an attack; although, he was witniss to a spinning Sharingan before he fell into a trance. Itachi didn't have enough strength in his eyes to tame Kakashi, but thankfully Naruto was there to subdue Kakashi's attempts at breaking out of the genjutsu. Kakashi answered them after one question and they took him to the hospital before heading under the Hokage Monument. It was fitting that the symbol of the Hidden Leaf protected the base that protected it.

When they arrived, they were second after a man who looked like he barely did any work to get here. Upon asking him, they learned that he had a brother who was in ANBU and he followed him here. Kinda lame, because of the lack of effort, but Naruto kept his mouth shut.

The last man finally showed up and he looked a little worse for wear. He explained that he had fought an ANBU and lost, he was then taken here for questioning and upon explaining his predicament, they escorted him here. Pretty ingenious if Naruto had to say any thing about it, if not a tad too much.

"Welcome, you four, to the final test to see who is worthy to become ANBU. You four will be taken into separate rooms where your test will be given. None of your tests will be the same, as the final test is given personally to make you combat the thing which is the most ill-suited thing for you. Your nemisis will be your opponent and the odds will be stacked against you to see if you can overcome any odds. All four of you could pass, or only three, or two, or one, or none of you. Itachi Uchiha, you are in the room to the south, Naruto Namikaze, you are in the room to the North, Wasabi, you are in the room to the East, and finally Nadu, you are to the West. Go there and you will begin the final test.

Itachi entered his room and immediately he was forced to fight an opponent who attacked him head on. The enemy wore nothing that could be used for identification, so Itachi had no way of knowing what this attacker was capable of. With a sudden burst of speed, Itachi was hit hard in the chest; however, the Itachi that was hit turned into a murder of crows and flocked the assailant. But before Itachi could use this diversion to his advantage, a strong wave of water struck against him and sent him flying but otherwise unhurt. Itachi was confused with the attack, as he had never seen the handseals and was confused why the attack was water. It appeared that Itachi's nemesis was not having enough information about the attacker because he was unable to form strategies. Unlike Naruto, he was a long term thinker who weighed the odds and picked the best option, but in the heat of battle, he was just not able to take the time to form a strategy. The fight lasted a few more moments before each fighter stood at opposite ends of the arena, with a start both fighters rushed towards each other, knowing this was the final attack. Both fighters struck at the same instant, but the assailant was just a tad quicker, and his kunai made a squelching sound as it imbedded itself in Itachi's skull. But instead of Itachi falling to the ground dead, he was suddenly aware of the actual outcome of the fight, where he was tied up on the ground with Itachi standing over him. Itachi received a nod of recognition before several ANBU dropped from the ceiling. One immediately went to untying the attack while the others led Itachi back to the main arena.

Naruto's test was considerably different. The ANBU had known that his strength was caused by his will to protect the people of Konoha, so his test was merely a question. _What would you do in the event of an invasion of Konoha, Naruto Namikaze? _

_Would you…?_

_Protect those important to you first, then assist in attacking the invaders._

_Immediately find a commanding officer and receive orders._

_Head to the nearest vital defence area such as the hospital, academy, or the Hokage Tower to defend._

_Find your parents and stay with them as they defend the Leaf Village, assisting when you can._

Naruto took his time as he pondered over each answer carefully, but he always ended with the same conclusion: every answer had merit and could be true. If the test was truly wondering what he would actually do, he would choose A. But he knew that the correct answer would be B. C also was plausible, but he would be defending an area without orders, so if there was a retreat then he would be deserted and left to die. D would also be something he would actually do in the event of a crisis. In the end, it all boiled down into two choices, would he lie to get into ANBU by choosing B, or would he be honest and risk losing the chance to join ANBU by choosing A. In the ninja world, deceit is a powerful weapon and they could be looking for someone that could lie when needed, but lying to the people who hope to work for might get him thrown out. In the end, Naruto wrote a sentence down and circled it before standing up and handing in his question to the proctor. The proctor looked at his answer before handing it off to another ANBU member and escorting him back to the larger arena. The second Naruto left the room, the second ANBU member started chuckling at the balls the young recruit had shown. Instead of picking one of the four answers, he had written down his own answer and circled it, while explaining with a side note that ninja always had a way to get around strict rules to save the people they swore to protect.

After awhile, Itachi and Naruto were the only ones left standing in front of Kakashi and the ANBU Commander.

"Since it appears only these two passed the final test, I hereby conclude this biannual ANBU recruitment. Naruto Namikaze and Itachi Uchiha step forward. You two will become part of an ANBU squad consisting of four members. Dog(Kakashi) here will be your commanding officer, and Bird will be the leader of the squad. You two are to pass through the doors behind me and aquire the gear you will wear until you die or you decide to leave ANBU. There, you will also decide on a mask that will define you. Whichever mask you choose, you will become that thing, and will be referred to as such. Dismissed." With that being said, the ANBU Commander disappeared to resume his job as head of Konoha's elite fighters.

Itachi and Naruto followed Kakashi through the door and found themselves in a huge armoury. There, they picked out there ANBU gear, which was only slightly different than their usual gear. Naruto's being extremely similar, and Itachi only needing to grab a small sword, akin to the one Naruto always carried around him. Then, the two found themselves in front of a huge display case featuring all the available masks with the name beside them. Itachi knew at first glance that he would have the crow mask since he often used a murder of crows as his substitution. Naruto, on the other hand, was unsure which mask he should use. He liked the snake one, but he didn't know any "Snake Moves." Finally, one just called to him, almost begging for him to take it: a mask titled Deva. Deva was simply another word for supernatural beings, but he thought it extremely fitting because of Deva path that he preferred to use over all other techniques.

Once the two signed up completely with ANBU and gave their names and masked names, they were allowed to finally go home and rest, because the next few weeks they would be taught the skills that allow for ninja to survive in the extremely harsh world of the ANBU. The ANBU were the best of the best and had to take the deadliest missions, which is why they were being trained even more than they already had been. Training by themselves had be beneficial to their growth in their earlier years, but with an actually extremely strong teacher, they would skyrocket further than ever before.

Naruto and Itachi both went home to their respective houses and ate dinner before finally crawling in bed to sleep. It had been an entirely draining day for the young prodigies, and they slept all through the night, dreaming about one day being able to save the Leaf Village from any enemy.


	5. Chapter 5

The Child of Prophecy

Chapter 5

The next morning, Naruto awoke to find himself barely escaping yet another prank from his mother. This time, it was the floor caving in when he stepped on it. His mother had made the trap to make him fall through the floor and into a seal array created by his mother which would transport him being stuck in a vat of glue. He had fallen for it once before, and it was not pleasant. He had been stuck for about five minutes before his mom finally came and got him, his nose had been terribly itchy and it was a fate worse than death that he had not been able to scratch it with his arms glued to his side.

After Naruto avoided the trap, he went downstairs to see his mom about the kenjutsu training she had been giving him on the side. Since he had passed the prank, she taught him another move that was rather simple to do, but extremely effective against a stronger opponent. Afterwards, he headed to his father's study in the house to ask him some questions about his Rasengan. True, he loved using his Deva Path more than anything because it was something only he could do, unlike learning the Rasengan from his father, or his kenjutsu style from his mother, but it was always good to learn techniques on the side just in case. After talking to his father for ten minutes about adding wind Chakra to the Rasengan, Naruto headed to the ANBU base to meet up with Itachi and begin their training.

It was only three hours later, and Naruto and Itachi were panting on the ground, completely spent on Chakra. The ANBU training was far more intense than anything they had ever done before. Apparently, the training did not have a standard method. There was no set amount of anything because, for instance, if one person did 100 push-ups all the time, and another never did any, then ordering them to do fifty push-ups each would be helpful to the one who did none, but it was less training for the one who did them all the time. This training was the same. You were ordered to do excercise and Chakra techniques until it was physically impossible for you to do more. You never grew strong unless you pushed yourself past your limits, that was the motto for the ANBU trainees. Naruto and Itachi lasted far longer than most people on their first day, but the result was still the same: for the next two months, they would train like this everyday to get used to exhaustion and build up everything.

Nothing really changed for Naruto and Itachi over the next two months, they trained, and in their free time trained, and sometimes trained. Naruto, of course, spent time with his family whenever he could, but Itachi was a different story. Everyone in the village knew that the Uchiha's were becoming distant and sometimes hostile towards the village. Itachi was not like the rest of the Uchihas, but he often would tell Naruto of how his father was arranging secret meetings that only the upper-class Uchiha could attend. Being the son of the head of the clan, Itachi was invited many times, but only attended once. He said that the Uchiha were planning something huge for the village within the next few years, and they had better be ready for it what ever it was. Itachi was not able to ever hear what they were actually planning because only his father and a mysterious man named Tobi that sometimes showed up to talk to Itachi's father knew what the plan was. All Itachi heard was the word "nine", but he had no idea what that could mean.

Naruto had greatly improved on his Paths, but most importantly his Deva path. He knew the three techniques meant for the Deva path; the push, the pull, and the singularity. The push was an easy concept, everything around him gets blasted away, the range only depended on how much Chakra he put into it. The pull allowed him to completely control an object and move them up or down or towards him or away, the size of the object needed the exact amount of Chakra. The singularity was something different, he was able to create a black sphere in his hand and release it into the air, he could increase the gravity of the sphere to near planet-like levels, which would draw in everything. He was scared to use the last one, as it took much more Chakra than the first two.

Itachi had also gotten much stronger, he learned another technique for his Mangekyo Sharingan, Tsukuyomi. It was a very powerful genjutsu that allowed Itachi to control the speed that time passed by in his fake world. He could hold you there for days, while in the real world merely seconds have passed. Itachi was getting better at controlling his eye techniques, and because he already had transplanted eyes, he had nothing to worry about over using them.

Today was going to be an interesting day for Naruto and Itachi because it was their first mission with their ANBU squad. To top it off, it was an A-rank mission, and that made them very excited to be off. The squad gathered outside the village gates before shooting off towards the East to there mission. On the way, Bird told them of what the mission entailed. It was an assassination mission, with a few problems. The man they were going to kill has locked himself away inside of his warehouse, protected by his small army of bandits and thugs numbering in the 50's; however, the problem was that he had hired some protection from some wandering ninja, and they had no idea the number of enemy ninja.

It was nightfall by the time Deva, Crow, Dog, and Bird arrived in the village where the warehouse was. They only had about two hours to complete their mission, the report did not mention why they had such a small window. The group quickly split up and observed the warehouse and the patrolling thugs for thirty minutes before regrouping to receive orders from Bird.

"Alright squad, by using my Byakugan, I have mapped out the interior of the warehouse, along with locating the man we are to assassinate. I can see large groups of bandits here, here, and here," indicating to the map she drew, "there are three entrances which you will enter. Dog, you are to take the North entrance and quietly make your way to the man, Crow and Deva are to enter through these doors and create a diversion. If the enemies find out we are ANBU, the mission will become that much harder with the enemy ninja running from their location here to protect the man. I want you two to transform into thugs and start a brawl, if you can, kill them while you are brawling, but under no circumstance are you to engage the enemy ninja until Dog has assassinated the contact. I will remain here and use my Byakugan to inform you through our radios if there is a change of plans. Any questions?" After seeing none of them move, she dismissed them to carry out their mission.

The mission was going smoothly for Dog, that is until a small group of thugs began walking his way. He knew he was doomed to jeopardize the mission, that is until there was a lot of yelling and crashing noises behind the thugs, indicating Deva and Crow had begun. The thugs turned around and joined in on the fray. With the way now clear, Dog resumed his mission.

Deva and Crow were actually having fun brawling with the thugs. They were being hit, and they were striking back. Under normal circumstances, there would me no chance for even a group this large to even land a hit on two ANBU leveled ninja, but to make their disguise believable Deva and Crow had to take a few hits. Luckily, compared to ninja, thugs had the strength of a small child, so the hits they were taking did nothing. Eventually, the numbers of the thugs competing in the brawl ended up being zero. Deva and Crow were both lying with the dead bandits, feigning death. They had been able to kill all of the thugs, while acting like they were killed themselves. If they did not want to be ninja, they could definitely have a job as an actor.

Dog, meanwhile, had his arm thrust through the contacts chest cavity, lightning crackling around his hand. Mission complete.

Bird gave the command for everyone to meet up outside of the locked down that housed the enemy ninja, and soon enough Deva, Crow, Dog, and Bird were all facing a locked door. They could hear noises of everyone laughing behind the door, and Bird was able to identify 6 enemy ninjas within the room, two with jonin level reserves, the rest Chuunin. With a strong kick, and a few smoke bombs, the room was suddenly throw into disarray as the Konoha ninja began their attack. All four ANBU unsheathed their tanto(small sword) and started slashing throats. The first two enemies were taken down rather fast because they were intoxicated. Deva and Crow both ended up facing off against the jonin. Deva was struggling for a bit to grab ahold of the enemy, but once he did, his Preta Path sucked the Chakra right out of him until he was nothing more than a husk. Itachi, on the other hand, had difficulty getting the enemy to look into his eye, but as soon as he did, he was witness to his own torture for 3 days, as Itachi trapped him inside of a Tsukuyomi.

While Deva and Crow were busy with their enemy, Bird and Dog had no trouble in taking down the remaining Chuunin. Dog had a light scratch where he had moved to protect Deva from an attack from behind, but was otherwise unhurt. Since they had no reason to stay any longer, the group of four decided to return to Konoha and get the pay for their first ANBU mission.

_Timeskip a couple years: _

Deva and Crow were crouching on top of a rooftop, overlooking their targets. It was nightfall in Konoha, and their was a uneasy feeling over the entire village. Something that told Minato something evil was coming, something dangerous. Which is the reason Deva and Crow were currently overlooking the Uchiha Clan Compound, the site of what was going to be called the Uchiha Massacre for many years to come. Over the last couple years, ever since Naruto and Itachi first joined ANBU and donned the Deva and Crow mask, Minato and a few higher ups in Konoha were receiving increasingly worsening news. The news they were receiving was that of a coup d'etat, staged by one of the founding clans: The Uchiha. Ever since the era of the Second Hokage, the Uchiha have been trusted less and less, and more power has been removed from them because of rumours floating around. The Uchiha finally had enough, and had decided to overthrow the village and rule it themselves. Knowing that none in the Uchiha were innocent excluding Itachi and his younger brother, the Fourth Hokage issued an order to his two of his most powerful ANBU members; his own son Naruto, and the herald of the information, Itachi.

And that brings us back to the mission currently at hand, the assassination of every Uchiha. A few Uchiha have been picked off on missions for the last few days, and before the clan learns of this they must be killed. The only way Itachi would carry out this mission was that he could save his younger brother. Both boys were extremely depressed with what could be their last mission for Konoha. The assignment carried a sub-mission that was possibly worse for them than the entire genocide of a clan. Once the two were done, they were to be labeled rouge ninja and forced to flee Konoha. The Hokage could not get away with ordering the genocide of a clan, so all the blame must rest on Itachi's shoulders; however, Naruto fought for hours to secure a place beside his best friend as a rouge ninja. There was no way that Naruto would let Itachi take the fall all by himself. Naruto and his mom fought for hours, but finally Kushina had to give in to her son, mostly because Naruto's younger sister was due in a few hours and Kushina had to get ready. After a heartfelt hug, Naruto donned his ANBU gear and joined Itachi.

Which brings us back once again, to Deva and Crow. Beneath their ANBU masks, Crow's Mangekyo Sharingan was spinning wildly, and Deva's Rinnegan could easily be seen glowing from within. With a nod at each other, the two disappeared into the night. Because it was an ambush, their targets fell easily, after a while, their was only one house left. Both ANBU soldiers gathered in front of the door. With a large fire ball jutsu, the door was blown open, but strangely enough, they never heard it hit the ground. In fact, the two heard no movement at all, and Itachi knew that his parents were home tonight, so where were they? Itachi's answer was a scene out of a horror movie, the bodies of his mother and father sprawled out on the blood-covered floor. There was no sign of struggle, indicating that his parents were struck down by surprise. The problem was that no one else was supposed to know of their mission, so this murder was unrealated.

"This is not right, Deva. Who could have done this?" Crow murmured.

"With my Rinnegan, I can see that this room has been altered slightly with Chakra. It seems like everything in this room has been swirled into another dimension and then brought back, just like his- Crow, we have to get to the Hokage immediately!" Deva yelled before taking off, with Crow close behind.

Because of Kushina going into labour, Minato had her taken elsewhere, guarded only by him and another medic. The medic was there to keep Kushina healthy as she delivered a little girl, while Minato was there to keep the seal that restrained the Kyuubi strong. With a final push, Naruto's younger sister, Natsumi, was brought into the world. Minato was so happy, he almost didn't recognize the sound of a body hitting the floor, almost. He spun around to the sight of the medic falling to the ground in a pool of her own blood. He turned back around to hear Kushina screaming, and what he saw made his blood run cold. Natsumi was being held in the arms of the Masked Man he had fought long ago.

"Step away from the Jinjurikii, Fourth." The Masked Man order while holding a kunai to little Natsumi's face.

Minato did as he was told, but prepared to attack at any opprutunity. His chance came sooner than expected when the Masked Man suddenly threw Natsumi in the air and thrust his kunai in the air towards her small body. Instead of that happening, Minato used his Hirashin teleportation to grab Natsumi and stick to the wall with her in her arms. But, he had to move quickly, since the blanket she was wrapped up in started glowing with the sight of an exploding seal on it. Minato quickly unraveled the blanket and jumped away with a naked Natsumi. The house exploded, but from his wive's Chakra, he could feel that they were far away. With a flash, he teleported to his house and placed Natsumi inside their bed, before then donning his Hokage cloak and teleporting to Kushina.

What he teleported to, was the sight of seeing a large red paw almost crush him to death. Minato quickly jumped to the side, not a moment too soon. From his new position, Minato was able to see the prone form of his wife's body lying on the ground. He teleported to her side, then brought her back to lay with their daughter as he fought the Masked Man.

When Minato reappeared, the Masked Man was gone, and so was the Kyuubi. Before he could set out, his son and Itachi both appeared before him.

"Dad! That Masked Man that attacked us when I was young returned! You have to protect mom, he may try to kill her again!" Naruto shouted.

"Do not worry Naruto, I have already seen him and taken Kushina to a secure place. Your newborn sister is also fine, but right now we have to worry about the masked man because he is now in possession of the Kyuubi. We must find him at once and stop him because I feel that the entire village is in danger." Minato, with his Fourth Hokage tone, set out to defend the village, Naruto and Itachi close behind.

When they arrived, they were confronted by Kakashi, whom they told of what was happening. Kakashi, along with Naruto and Itachi were the most powerful shinobi inside of the Village, exluding the Hokage. Jiraiya is stronger, but at the time, he was far away from the village on a mission.

The four were stationed all over the village, looking for the Masked Man, when suddenly, a loud pop of smoke disturbed the air, and a roar defended the village. Immediately, everyone's heads turned to locate the source of the roar, and were witniss to a sight that none of them wished to see: the sight of the mighty Kyuubi towering over all of them. With a sudden swipe of a tail, many buildings were crushed and the earth shook. Many were not going to survive this night.

"Hokage, your time has come." Suddenly the masked man appeared behind Minato, and just as sudden, they both were gone.

"Naruto, Itachi, we three need to stop the Kyuubi's assualt so that the Hokage can finish it!" Kakashi barked out orders he had been used to giving to these two since they were under his direct command for years now. Naruto and Itachi were both 14 and Kakashi was 18, hard to imagine teens fight a monster like the Kyuubi, but someone had to do it.

The three assembled on top of the Hokage Monument, devising a plan to take it down. Before they were ready, the Kyuubi reared its head back and gathering pecular-looking Chakra.

"Kakshi, we have trouble. With my Rinnegan, I can see that the Kyuubi is gathering Yin and Yang Chakra, which is far more powerful than human-made Chakra. I think it is going to fire a tailed-beast bomb, the strongest attack Bijuu can deal, and it's aimed right at us. If it hit this monument, the blast radius will encompass all of Konoha, every one will die. We need to divert this attack, not block it." Naruto said.

"Damn. Itachi!"

"Yes, sir!"

"You and I are going to combine our Mangekyo Sharingans to use Kamui together."

"Understood."

"While you two block the bombs, because I believe it will shoot more than one, I need time to gather up Chakra for my ultimate Rinnegan jutsu. Just by me some time!"

With that said, Naruto sat down and began gathering up Yin and Yang Chakra himself. He was only able to do this because of the Rinngean's abilities. Behind him, he heard the swishing sound of Kamui working on transporting the bomb into another realm. This was followed by another, and another. By the time Naruto was finally ready, Itachi and Kakashi were lying on the ground; exhausted. Naruto then jumped towards the Kyuubi and eventually ended up directly in front of it.

Naruto, then, finally opened his hands, and a little black ball came floating out of it and rose into the sky.

"Planetary Devastation." Naruto calmly called as pieces of earth swiftly rose up into the sky and combined with the orb. Everywhere, ground cracked and earth rumpled as Naruto put more and more power into the attack and the area surrounding Konoha was abruptly yanked into the sky. The attack was so strong that nearby mountains were crumbling and being lifted into the air. Once the gravitational pressure reached its peak, Naruto direct all it's effect on the Kyuubi; the results were instantainious. The Kyuubi rocketed towards the incredibly large rock suspended in the sky. The rock was so large, that had it been midday, its shadow would have loomed over the entirety of Konoha. The Kyuubi stood no chance as it tried to free itself from the gravity. Naruto knew that eventually, the Kyuubi would escape, so he combined the Deva Path's Planetary Devastation with his Preta Path and began draining the Kyuubi of Chakra through the rock that bound it. Naruto knew that he did not have enough power to remove even half of the Kyuubi's Chakra, but he did remove enough so that it was stuck for the moment.

"Good work, son. I'll take it from here." Minato appeared in all his glory beside Naruto. Minato suddenly threw his Hirashin kunai in the air and let the gravity of the rock carry to its destination, its surface. He then grabbed Naruto and teleported them both up to its surface.

"Pretty odd standing up here and looking down on our village, isn't son?" Minato said before walking over to the exposed skin of the Kyuubi's stomach.

"Son, let me just say that I'm proud of you. And I know you'll protect your mom and your little sister without me around." Minato said before starting a lot of seals.

"Dad, what are you talking about? You're not leaving us are you, you're not even hurt!" Naruto said, slightly panicking at the thought of losing his dad.

"I am sorry to place this burden on you son, but this technique I'm going to do will cause me to die. I will have to seal the Kyuubi into someone new since Kushina would not survive another sealing so soon. But here's where the news gets worse. Because the sealing will require new Chakra coils, we are forced to use a newborn. In the village, there are many newborns I could choose from, but how I could I ask someone else to sacrifice their child when I couldn't sacrifice mine? I am going to seal the Kyuubi inside of Natsumi. It will be your job to take care of her and protect her against any enemy. Well, now I'm finished with the seals. Goodbye, son. I love you." With that, the Kyuubi was defeated and resealed back inside another host; at the cost of the Fourth Hokage's life. The rock structure crumbled apart and Naruto, along with the body of his father, plunged towards the ground. Just after they landed, Naruto looked at his father with so much pain on his face before his eyes glowed and he called out two words.

"Outer Path."


	6. Chapter 6

The Child of Prophecy

Chapter 6

And just like that, a green light seemed to appear before Naruto's out stretched hand before rocketing towards Minato's lifeless body. Upon reaching Minato Namikaze's body, the green light lifted him up into the air before encompassing him with a blindingly strong light, and just as soon as it started, the light was gone and Naruto caught his father's now breathing body.

Naruto couldn't be more drained of energy, and just like that Naruto collapsed next to his father, oblivious to the shinobi that dropped all around them.

"Hokage-sama. Alright, Turtle and Cat, carry these two to the Hospital and inform me when they awake." The ANBU Commander appeared on the scene and began barking out orders.

With those two gone, the Commander ordered his ANBU to begin cleaning up the destruction the Kyuubi caused. The village survived another possible disaster thanks to the quick thinking of the Fourth Hokage and his son, along with the exhausted forms of Kakashi and Itachi that they found on top of the Hokage Monument.

It was several hours later that Naruto woke up to the over-powering scent of chemicals and sterilized rooms. He quickly realized that he was Konoha's hospital, and he then remembered all that happened the night before. Needless to say, he was very drained emotionally at seeing his father die and then brought back to life through Naruto's Rinnegan. Although, if you can imagine Naruto's confusion, Minato's was far worse. He had been to the other side, he had walked aimlessly through the fog of the afterworld before being dragged back and forced into his body. Minato looked at his son on one of the other hospital tables, beaming with pride.

Itachi was also on a bed, feeling much more happy than he had in awhile. Even though he didn't do anything close to damaging the Kyuubi like Naruto, he and Kakashi saved the village three times in a row from the Kyuubi's most powerful technique, and that was an achomplishment that made him proud of his skills.

Suddenly, the door was thrown wide open, and Kushina walked in with Natsumi held in her arms. Both Naruto and Minato smiled at seeing the duo.

"So this is the first time I'm seeing my little sister. She looks just like you, Mom." Naruto said.

"Really? Well I guess since you resemble your father, it's good that someone shares my amazingly good looks." Kushina said before waving at an imaginary crowd.

"Kushina, I'm glad your safe." Minato said before hugging them both.

Soon enough, Naruto was asked to join in, and the Namikaze family was enjoying a family hug that lasted awhile. The tension from the previous night abaiting in the light of the new day.

Naruto then noticed Itachi and Kakashi, who were lying down in their separate beds.

"Thank you two for buying me enough time to use my jutsu last night. I doubt this village would have stayed standing without you two here. We're pretty awesome for just being teenagers, and already stopping attacks like the Kyuubi from destroying our village." Naruto said before smiling and looking out the window at his village.

"You all three did well, and I'm going to use this opportunity to promote you three to Jonin. When we get out of this hospital, you three will be recognized in front of the village as the heros of the leaf!" Minato said before standing up and trying to get to his office, at least that would have happened had Kushina not slammed the door shut and force them to remain in the hospital for the remainder of the day. Even though they all wanted to be elsewhere, they each had severe Chakra exhaustion, and actually agreed to resting in bed another day.

The day passed by boring, with the only form of entertainment being the random visitors that came in and thanked them for stopping the Kyuubi before more people were killed. There was to be a funeral for the people who lost their lives the following day, and everyone was welcome to attend. That thought put the four in depressed moods since they partially blamed themselves for not subduing the Kyuubi earlier, regardless of the fact they knew they did extremely well.

Soon enough, they were allowed to leave to sleep in their own beds, but they were required to have a final check up the following day before they were released completely.

The funeral was depressing as expected, but they received applause from the whole village when they were promoted to Jonin for stopping the Kyuubi. No one was made aware of the fact that Natsumi was the new host, as it would cause unnecessary troubles for the Namikaze family.

Naruto, Itachi, and Kakashi proudly stood on the edge of the Hokage Tower, bathing in the applause, but not letting it get to their heads.

The following years passed by relatively normal, ANBU mission after mission for Naruto, Itachi, and Kakashi. The three grew more powerful with their training, and some even considered them to be the next legendary Sannin, even though they were not all trained from the time they were genin like the original Sannin.

"I wish it didn't have to come to this Sarutobi-sama, but the tension with the Hidden Rock is just getting worse with every passing day. I heard a rumour that they were behind the Kyuubi attack, and had hired the masked man to do it. Lately, we've been getting reports that they are forming an alliance with the Hidden Cloud village along with several smaller countries, if they do not stop I fear it will only lead to war." Minato said before slamming his hand on the desk, cracking it.

"Dammit! I have to react in the best interest of my people. Somehow I have to stop this before it can escalate any further!" Minato yelled before he heard a knock on the door.

"Enter." Minato said calmly trying to restrain his frustration.

"Hokage-sama! This is a letter from the Hidden Rock, signed by Onoki himself." A messenger reported before handing Minato the letter.

As Minato read the letter, he couldn't help his hand squeezing so hard that blood was dripping down his palm.

"I am too late." Minato Namikaze said before using his Chakra to power up the intercom system that ran throughout the entire village.

"Villagers and Shinobi, this is your Hokage. After several failed attempts to calm the hostilities between us and the Hidden Rock, it is now inevitable."

All over the village, people stopped what they were doing to listen in. Several had already realized what Minato was about to say, and were gathering their children in doors.

"Just a few moments ago, Onoki, the leader of the Hidden Rock sent a letter that I just received. As of right now, we are at war with the Hidden Rock! Now we must show the Hidden Rock why we are the strongest Hidden village in the elemental nations! We are Konoha! We will show our enemies our resolve and our will of fire to protect our village! All Shinobi Chuunin level or higher are to report to the stadium to receive instructions. Shikaku Nara, please report to the Hokage Tower to help me plan. We will not fall!" Minato finished before asking his predecessor, Sarutobi, what he should do.

"Minato-kun, Konoha has emerged victorious in the past Great Ninja Wars, so all we must do is allow the will of fire to guid us to victory." Sarutobi, The Third Hokage, said while placing a hand on Minato's shoulder.

Just then, Shikaku appeared before them looking more alert and focused than usual.

"Shikaku Nara, reporting Hokage-sama!"

"I guess this truly shows how dire the situation is, a Nara not acting like everything is too troublesome." Minato said before taking a seat a gesturing for Sarutobi and Shikaku to sit as well.

"We have about half an hour to discuss how we're going to do this before we have to mobilize our troops and send them off, so how should we organize our troops?" Minato asked.

"In the past wars, we have always sent out Chuunin and low-level Jonin to be the most forward position, while the Genin remain in the village and train to become Chuunin before sending them off. High-level ninja have always remained in key positions to support our troops, but since our enemies have fought us before, I doubt they would forget our strategy, and will plan a counter." Sarutobi said before summoning a messenger to contact his two students Jiraiya and Tsunade and ask them to return to the village.

"That does sound like a decent strategy, but I agree, we should change a few key spots to surprise our enemy. What do you recommend, Shikaku?" Minato asked.

"Our ANBU should play a bigger part in the war than last time since your famous jutsu will be countered by now. There is no way the Hidden Rock will have forgotten how easily you single handedly defeated a large group of enemy, and they will have devised a counter by now. Here's what I think we should do with the ANBU."

On the other side of the village, Naruto sat in the Exam Stadium with Itachi and Kakashi next to him.

"I can't believe we are actually going to war, Itachi." Naruto said while looking up at the sky.

"I know how you feel, Naruto, but we are going to have to focus on what's at hand if Konoha is to survive this war. It is logical to think that us three will become some kind of secret trio designed to cause major damage on Iwa." Itachi said before joining Naruto in looking at the sky.

"You two, listen up. I've already survived one ninja war, and we will survive this one as well. Here comes the Hokage now." Kakashi said before remaining silent.

"Ninja of Konoha, some of you have doubts about going to war, so let me say this. War is an ugly, horrible thing, and I did everything in my power to stop Onoki from declaring war. But now that it is absolute, how should we react? Should we just abandon Konoha to these Rock Ninja? No! We will fight until there is nothing else! We will stand and protect Konoha because it is our home!" As the Hokage was giving his little speech, the number of expectant and determined faces increased exponentially until everyone in the stadium was shaking with resolve to protect that which matters most: Konoha.

"So let me begin by separating you into groups. Every clan-born ninja, come down here and group into your individual clans. Next, every remaining Chuunin will head to the Village square to be given directions. Next, every Jonin, not in ANBU, will meet at training ground 1. Finally, every ANBU member will meet at the ANBU Headquarters, dismissed! We have a war to win!" Minato said before teleporting to his office to resume discussing strategies with Shikaku as Sarutobi left to organize the clan ninja.

Naruto, Itachi, and Kakashi all entered the ANBU Headquarters right behind each other, nodding at several other masked ANBU. Getting the hidden message, they also donned their masks, becoming Deva, Crow, and Inu once again. The gathered ANBU we greeted by the sight of the ANBU Commander who began barking out orders.

"…you six will head to Point Gamma to defend until you are relieved by a group of standard ninja. Dismissed. Deva, Crow, Inu, you three are the only ones left remaining because the Hokage has a special mission for you. Unlike the Sannin, who we always kept near each other, you three will be split up do to each of you being extremely capable ninja. Crow, you will be stationed at Point Beta right on the front lines, your mission until further notice is to defend Kannabi Bridge at all cost, you will be supported by a large group of Chuunin and low-level Jonin, but you will be there as support. Dismissed!" And with that, Itachi disappeared into the night, wondering if he would ever see his friends, Konoha, or his little brother ever again.

"Inu, you will be stationed at point Delta near Morosaki Hill. It is where the new ANBU Headquarters will be located and you will be in charge of training new recruits and using your ninja dogs to relay messages that require haste. Dismissed!" And suddenly, only one member of the neo-Sannin remained.

"Deva, I am sorry to say that you will have the most dangerous and near-suicidal location, Point Alpha. Your Rinnegan, and your Toad Summoning Contract will be a huge boon to the force there. Since we have always lost this point in past wars, we are ordering you to retreat should the threat become to high; we can defeat them at other positions. Due to the nature of your powers, we are only sending a small force that will be helpful to you. Several Hyuuga's who will always watch your back, along with Jiraiya himself, who will be in charge of the Point. You are dismissed. And good luck, Naruto." The Commander said before watching his favourite ANBU member disappear, his hand trembled with rage at the fact they were sending out mere boys to the front lines. He then disappeared to a private meeting with the Hokage and the Shinobi Council, they had a war to win.

After a day of extremely fast travel, Naruto arrived at the top of a hill that overlooked a plain that seemed to stretch on forever to the front, and a forest behind him; this was Point Alpha, on the edge of the Land of Fire. There was a small tent stationed at the top of the hill, and it looked like the Konoha Shinobi were still setting up. Naruto quickly recognized his God-fathers voice and entered the tent.

"You better have a damn good reason for- Oh Naruto, I'm glad to see you." Jiraiya said before returning to look over the roster sheet for their small force of seven ninja.

"Good to see you as well, Jiraiya. What kind of forces do we have?"

"We have, along with us, a Nara, an Inuzuka, two Hyuuga's, and a Yamanaka. Fairly diverse, but we both know that many will not survive this war. Since I'm here, I'll do the majority of the Toad Summoning, while you cover me with your Rinnegan abilities, if it gets too intense, I will use something called Sage Mode, which you will be unable to keep up with. If it comes to that, retreat back to this hill and once again defend it from attacks. Let us go relay the strategy to our small force." Jiraiya said before he and Naruto left the tent and called everyone for a small meeting.

"Listen up everybody. Scouts report that we have 10,000 enemy ninja heading this way and they will reach this point tomorrow." This got gulps of fear from most of the ninja. One even asked why they were being tasked with an impossible goal. They couldn't defend this hill outnumbered by this many.

"Listen because I'm only going to say this once. None of you are going to be attacking the enemy ninja. This position is a false one, and we are meant to cave by tonight. Our mission is not to defend this position, but to kill as many ninja as possible before retreating to Point Beta and meeting up with the main force there. The enemy will be coming here expecting a long drawn out fight like the prior war, but instead Deva and I will launch our most powerful attack in order to kill them. With seven of us here, I hope that we will be able to eliminate at least 1,000 of them by the time we retreat tomorrow night. Nara here will be helping us plan certain attacks that will cause the most deaths, while the Yamanaka will remain in the base to communicate with HeadQuarters. The two Hyuuga's and Inuzuka will assist Deva and I by watching our backs. Good luck everyone, and understand that Command has us numbered this few for a reason. I expect that we will have no casualties, but make your peace tonight because none of us are retreating until I feel that we have killed a sufficient amount of enemies. Dismissed." Jiraiya said.

Everyone in the camp went about their duties by collecting firewood and cooking dinner and the usual camping experience; although, there was always a nervous tension in the air that didn't disappear the entire night.

It was about mid-afternoon when a Hyuuga alerted everyone to the fact he could see the enemies marching just on the horizon, it was time for the first skirmish that usually dictated the outcome of the war.

On the other side of the plains, several Rock Ninja were eagerly awaiting this battle. They had received information from a scout claiming that there was close to 500 enemy ninja. They were pleased that they had them outnumbered 2:1 and expected a victory here. They were correct in their assumption, there was no way they would lose, but the cost of victory might be extremely high today.

"Everyone! Charge!" And with that command, the Rock Ninja all yelled and charged at the small hill across the plains. They only made it about half way when the front line found themselves struggling to run, they all looked down to see that they were running through a mucky swamp. Before they could wonder why there was a swamp in the middle of the grassland, the Rock Ninja started sinking.

"Toad Swamp of the Underworld!" Jiraiya called out before the swamp swallowed up roughly 65 ninja and killed them underground.

Every rock ninja that was still alive looked up in the sky where the voice came from to hear a jutsu that sent shivers down their spines.

"Toad Summoning Jutsu: The Three Warriors!" Jiraiya yelled before three large poofs of smoke appeared and landed with a large thud in front of the Rock Ninja.

When the smoke cleared, the Rock Ninja were witness to the sight of three battle ready bijuu-sized Toads, with the largest supporting a small group of ninja on its head.

"Rock Ninja! Fire!" And just when the Commander of the Rock Ninja, Itsumo, ordered, the Rock Ninja all went through similar seals before a large amount of stones were hurled at the largest toad.

"Gamaken, Gamahiro, scatter and start attacking! Deva!" Jiraiya yelled before the two toads on either side of them vanished and reappeared somewhere in the middle of the enemy force, demolishing everyone. Deva jumped to the front of the Toad and yelled out "Shinra Tensei!" which halted all the rocks and let them fall to the ground harmlessly. If he had put more Chakra in the technique, he could have sent them flying back towards the Rock Shinobi, but with the other two Toads in the crossfire, he didn't want to risk it.

"Gamabunta! Start killing." Jiraiya calmly said before 'bunta rushed forward and began slashing large groups of enemies with his over-sized tanto.

This continued for about an hour before Gamahiro and Gamaken has ran out of Chakra and returned to Mount Myoboku.

"'bunta, give me some oil!" Jiraiya yelled before Gamabunta spewed out an extremely large jet out oil towards the rock nin, Jiraiya also ran through some seals and called out one of his favourite techniques "Combination Technique: Toad Flame Bomb!" As he lit the oil on fire, creating a raging inferno that encompassed many Shinobi who had forgotten to hide behind a Rock Wall.

With that final jutsu, Gamabunta disappeared and the group landed on the ground, with only Jiraiya breathing hard since he was the only one to use a lot of Chakra, Naruto's Rinnegan barely used any.

While they were still covered by the smoke of Bunta disappearing, the Hyuugas alerted the group to rocks being hurled at them. With a small spin, the Hyuugas deflected the rocks with their Kaiten(Heavenly Spin).

"More coming from below," the Inuzuka called out from his heightened sense of smell. "Gatsuuga!" He called out before spinning in a small tornado and scewering the ninja underground before returning, covered in blood and gore, but otherwise unharmed.

Naruto was busy protecting Jiraiya from random attack while he summoned Ma and Pa, the toad sages that enabled him to go into Sage Mode.

"Deva, all I need is five minutes. Cover me until then." Jiraiya ordered before concentrating on gathering Nature Chakra, which is fundamental to Sage Mode.

A quick stab to the left, a duck, a block from a kunai followed up by a slash to their neck, a dodge, a kill, another kill, a wound on this thigh, a wound on his neck, a fatal wound through his heart, the young Inuzuka fell to the ground, lifeless.

"Damn it!" Deva yelled before quickly killing an enemy that was going to strike Jiraiya. He then looked to his left and saw that one of the Hyuugas was wounded and about to be finished off, but, "Almighty Pull" Deva calmly said before the enemy flew towards him and he quickly killed her.

"Everyone! Gather around me! I'm going to use a technique that will buy us a little time! Shinra Tensei!" Naruto yelled and forced a larger amount of Chakra into it, repeling everything in a fifty meter radius around his group away. The huge blast kicked up enough dust to hide in for a few minutes, which luckily was all Jiraiya needed. They emerged from the dust with Jiraiya transformed into a Toad-Human Hybrid with Ma and Pa perched upon his shoulders.

"Showering Needles Jutsu!" Jiraiya called out before his hair shot hundreds of needles at the Rock nin. Some of them countered with a rock shield, but others weren't quick enough and were punctured by the flying needles. Screams erupted from the enemy and most lost control and charged, unorganized. This is what Jiraiya preferred, as he disappeared so fast that only the Rinnegan was able to keep up. Unfortunately, none of the Rock Shinobi possessed the Rinnegan, therefore, Jiraiya demolished them soundly before returning to the group.

"I think that we have succeeded today. Deva, begin." Jiraiya called out before looking around sadly at the bodies of the Inuzuka and the Hyuuga that Naruto had tried to save, the wound was too great and he died. All that remained was the Nara that looked a little scraped up, Deva, a Hyuuga girl, and hopefully that Yamanaka was still alive hidden in the base. He dismissed that hope when he looked up to see that the base was ablaze. In their slaughter, they had been flanked and were now surrounded, the only way out was to open up a path.

Jiraiya and the other defended Deva as he gathered enough Chakra, but sadly, the Nara perished while defending. Naruto finally clasped his hand together and what emerged was a small black sphere, which rose up into the sky.

"Planetary Devastation." Even though it was spoken calmly, the words carried over the enemies and some of them gulped in fear at the power those words seemed to convey. Their fear was correctly placed as the gravity seemed to change before small rocks seemed to rise into the sky. The gravity got stronger, however, and before long, boulders accompanied by people rose into the sky and were crushed. Most of the surviving ninja recognized what was happening and used their widely used Earth Tunneling Jutsu to retreat before they were sucked up as well.

In the confusion, Deva, Jiraiya, and the female Hyuuga escaped. Naruto controlling the gravity around them to remain the same as they fled towards Point Beta in reverent silence at the lives lost. They had managed to take more lives than expected, numbering in the 3,000 area, but the losses were great as well. They had lost 4/7, which was most likely due to Jiraiya running off in Sage Mode, a thought that plagued Jiraiya's mind the whole way back.

They were only able to make it back because of the Chakra Naruto had absorbed from some of the attacks being shared among them, along with some Chakra pills.

When they arrived at Point Beta, they were immediately brought into the makeshift hospital and fell asleep almost instantly, the day's events finally catching up with them. The last thing he thought of was the lives that they had lost, and a few silent tears dripped down his face. He hated this stupid war.


	7. Chapter 7

The Child of Prophecy

Chapter 7

When Naruto awoke, he found himself meeting the eyes of the ANBU Commander, who asked him to relay the events that occurred at Point Alpha.

Once he was done informing the Commander of the successful elimination of close to 3,000 enemy shinobi, he was asked to attend a meeting.

Quickly getting dressed, Naruto followed the Commander to a large tent that no doubt held only the higher-ups in their force. Before entering, Naruto looked around and was pleased to see the incredible amount of Konoha Shinobi that were hard at work. Now this was an army! Naruto guessed that there were around 13,000 men and women going about their duties all over the camp, and their were probably more doing tasks out of sight. Rows and rows of tents seemed to stretch on in a grid format.

Once Naruto was done, he entered the tent and was surprised to see several prominent Shinobi seated in a semi circle arguing over strategies and tactics. They all stopped, however, upon his entry.

"Naruto-kun, I'm so happy to see you safe." Kushina exclaimed in a relieved tone, happy her son survived the initial scuffle.

Naruto merely smiled and nodded at his mother before standing next to Jiraiya, who was standing in front of the semi-circle.

"Now that Naruto has arrived, let us begin this meeting. First order of business, please inform us of what occurred at Point Alpha." The makeshift council leader, Shikaku Nara, said to Naruto and Jiraiya.

"Naruto and I were, with the assistance of 5 Konoha shinobi, able to eliminate roughly 3,000 enemy troops at the cost of four of our own. The only other survivor was a female Hyuuga that still resides in the hospital." Jiraiya calmly said before stepping back to stand with Naruto once again.

"That is both good and sorrowful to hear Jiraiya-sama. More enemy dead than expected, but at the cost of more of our own Shinobi. Thank you, Hokage-sama has requested you back at Point Gamma." Shikaku said before watching Jiraiya leave the tent.

"Naruto, step forward."

"Yes?" Naruto asked while stepping forward.

"We have an assignment for you and one other. It is an extremely important mission."

"Well, of course I'm up for it, but who will I be working with?"

"Someone you are quite familiar with, send him in." Shikaku said before yelling the last part to the guards outside the tent.

And just as the tent flaps parted, Naruto was relieved to see a very familiar set of glowing red eyes.

"Itachi Uchiha will be accompanying you on the mission," Shikaku stated before explaining their undercover mission.

"Iwa forces are estimated to be here in three days, with numbers twice the size of the remaining force you fought, Naruto. We have sufficient forces to combat this assault, but we do not wish to have a long drawn out war like the previous one. We have compiled a list of prominent enemy nin scattered throughout the regular forces that you are to eliminate. These ninja range from A-S rank, which is why we are sending you both together. You are to begin this mission once we have made contact with the enemy, and you will have up to a month to complete it. With these nins dead, we will be able to have a much easier time fighting the grunts. Do you accept this mission?" Kushina asked.

"Yes."

"Hai."

"Good. Dismissed." Kushina handed them the list.

On that note, Naruto and Itachi left the tent and began aimlessly walking around the camp.

"Just like old times, eh Itachi?" Naruto asked.

"So it seems. How was the initial fight?"

"Personally, I really didn't do that much. It was mostly Jiraiya-sama who dealt the most damage, I was more or less support for him."

"I'm sorry for your comrades who perished."

"Yea, but at least they died early so that wouldn't have to survive through this stupid war. Let's see who our targets are." Naruto said.

"Who's first on the list?" Itachi asked.

"_The Crumbling Stone_, it says. An Iwa Shinobi, A-class, known abilities are the impressive used of the substitution technique with rock clones, which gave him the title. Says here that he can cover himself up with stones to become a miniature golem, interesting. What strategies do you figure?" Naruto asked before Itachi and him began planning their mission's first assassination, out of nine. Each one seemed to get progressively harder, with two of them causing Naruto and Itachi to gulp nervously.

The next few days were spent with Naruto still recovering and spending time with his mom and baby sister before reviewing with Itachi and light training to get him battle-ready.

Before they knew it, Naruto and Itachi had to leave camp in the middle of the night and head due NorthWest to flank the enemy and infiltrate. The journey was incredibly fast paced, but also silent. There was no room for a mistake now that they were in enemy territory, not that they mistakes anyway, they were the best after all.

It was just before the break of dawn when they covered themselves in Itachi's elaborate genjutsu and waited for the enemy to pass.

Even for two of the most dangerous ANBU operatives in the Leaf, remaining calm when literally thousands of enemies walked right past you was no easy chore, and a light sheen of sweat dripped off of both of them. Suddenly, a man began walking in their direction, intent on investigating on why he could smell sweat from the base of a tree. However, someone called out to him and he grumbled to himself before turning around and walking back to his position in the march.

Naruto and Itachi's breath both hitched when their very target walked into view before leaning up against a tree. It appeared that he intended on skipping out of the oncoming battle, which was fine for Naruto and Itachi because that just made their job that much easier. The fighting would take place roughly two miles from their current position, and that gave them plenty of comfort. Far off in the distance, Naruto and Itachi heard the sound of an explosion, meaning that the battle was now underway.

Naruto scanned their vicinity for other Chakra systems with his Preta Path before signalling Itachi to weave a high level genjutsu over the area to hide the murder. Once Itachi was done, they both left the cover of their hiding place and startled their first assassination victim.

"Who are you? Wait those are Konoha headbands! You've just made a big mistake kids, get ready to say hi to all your dead relatives!" And with that declaration, he charged at Naruto and Itachi with a kunai in both hands. His attack failed though when Naruto blocked his right hand, while his left just harmlessly passed straight through "Itachi."

And before he could realize what had happened, Naruto's tanto was planted firmly between his ribs. Just for him to crumble into small stones.

"So you kids have a little skill, but that won't be enough to stop me!" The enemy yelled before throwing some kunai at the pair before rapidly forming seals.

"Mud Bullet Jutsu!" The man yelled before he shot several globs of mud at Naruto at high speeds.

Deciding not to give away any secrets by revealing his trump cards, Naruto just jumped in the air to avoid the deadly globs of earth.

"Now you're dead kid!" The man said before shooting out more globs while Naruto was in the air, knowing he couldn't dodge in midair. And that is why he was surprised when Naruto seemed to dodge all of them, even though he had relatively good accuracy. That was when he realized he had been caught in a subtle genjutsu and dispelled it with a sudden burst of Chakra, and not a moment too soon. As soon as his vision corrected itself and he was aware of the real world, he was forced to duck under two kunai's that whizzed past his head.

"Well let's see how you handle this! Rock Armour Jutsu!" The Iwa nin called out before he was encased in a stony suit of armour.

He then rushed at the boys, confident that he would be protected from any thing they could retaliate with. He swung at Naruto, who ducked under the swing but was forced to block a kick that still sent him flying into a tree. Itachi suddenly materialized behind the stone man and placed a few exploding seals on his back before dissappearing again.

Itachi reappeared near Naruto and activated his seals. The result was a small, but concentrated, explosion that rocket the man towards them.

"Preta." Itachi said before jumping towards the enemy, Naruto close on his heels.

Preta was the command that let Naruto know that Itachi was going to try and capture the opponent in a genjutsu while he was supposed to disrupt their Chakra, stopping them from escaping. The plan would have worked, except for the fact that once Itachi got close enough, he could see that their was no man inside to armour.

"He substituted again." Itachi said before using his Sharingan to detect local Chakra signatures. He suddenly rushed off to the left and reappeared chasing the man, back inside his impenetrable armour, in Naruto's direction. Naruto hadn't been helping because he had been focusing on his Chakra, but that changed when his eyes snapped open,he raised an arm towards the fleeing nin, and calmly uttered "Beinsho Tensei(Almighty Pull).

The result was that the man was suddenly halted in mid air and held there, unable to use the substitution because of Naruto disrupting his Chakra subconsciously with the Preta Path.

"Itachi, burn him." Naruto struggled to get out because holding a man plus the weight of the stone surrounding him in the air from this distance was taking most of his concentration.

"Fire Style: Searing Torrent" Itachi called out before spewing forth an incredibly hot fire that turned the stone into a diamond-like substance, the man obviously dead inside.

The now diamond-like shell fell to the ground and shattered into a million pieces, leaving no trace that a man was ever cased inside of it.

"One down, more to go." Naruto said before meditating in order to gather Chakra to refill after that fight. Itachi also did this, and when they were ready, they both shot off into the trees, tonight they were going hunting.

It was a couple more hours before Naruto and Itachi found a large clearing with a small group of enemy ninja building a makeshift catapult to launch their devastating earth techniques.

"Naruto, look. There's Haru, and across the clearing is Tonfi. We must either be really lucky or unlucky to have caught two at the same time." Itachi said while concealing his Chakra with Naruto.

"What is your fastest fire technique Itachi? I think I have a plan." Naruto said before relaying to Itachi the plan to eliminate the ninja.

In a concealed poof of smoke, a copy of Naruto and Itachi shot off into the woods to get into position while the originals stayed in their spot and waited for the signal.

"Almighty Pull!" "Fire Style: Flaming Arrow!" That was just what the originals were looking for, as they duplicated the attack exactly.

Haru and Tonfi were sitting around the fire on guard duty carefully watching the surrounding area for any chance of an attack. The past day had been relatively quiet, and the two were starting to get bored. They just wanted to be on the frontlines like their comrades and stick it to the Leaf Village. They were practically wishing for any attack, just so they could get some action.

It only took the sound of an attack from Haru's six-o'clock, and the feeling of Haru losing control over his gravity and being pulled roughly backwards to change that wish. Haru quickly turned around and faced his attackers in time to see a fast bolt of fire zooming towards him. Somehow, he was able to slightly dodge the arrow and threw kunai's at the silhouettes of his two attackers. They poofed away into smoke, and Haru knew that he had been played. He turned around just in time to hear a scream of pain.

Tonfi handled the attack slightly differently. When he was pulled off his feet and launched away from Haru, he turned and confronted the fire arrow head on, with an earth wall that stopped the arrow dead in its tracks. Unfortunately for Tonfi, the arrow that Haru dodged was flying towards his back, and there was nothing he could do about it. Before he knew it, the arrow pierced his heart and he screamed at the burning sensation of the flaming arrow assaulting his organs before his life disappeared completely.

"You bastards! I'll avenge Tonfi and kill you both slowly and painfully! Earth Style: Pebble Murder!" Haru yelled before small pebbles lifted off the ground and flew towards Naruto and Itachi at extreme speeds. At this speed, the pebbles functioned more like bullets from a gun, which caused Naruto to raise his arm and shout "Shinra Tensei," causing all the pebbles to launch back at Haru.

Haru dove underground and began tunneling all over the place. When ever he would surface for air, he would throw kunai and shuriken at Naruto and Itachi, forcing them to stand back to back in order to block all of them.

Suddenly, they both jumped in the air to avoid the hands that tried to grab their ankles and pull them under to their graves.

While in midair, Itachi rushed through seals and blew out a large ball of fire directly at Haru, but Haru had already disappeared again.

The two were forced to jump again and again due to the fact that Haru seemed to know he was slightly outmatched on the surface and stuck to hit and run tactics underground.

"Itachi, jump! I'll get him out of the ground," and just as they reached the peak of their ascent, Naruto bit his thumb and swiped it over his arm before running through handseals. "Summoning Jutsu: Gamaiwa!" And a semi-large poof of smoke appeared, accompained by the thud of a large toad landing on the ground.

"Gamaiwa! I need you to dig up a mole that has hidden himself underground." Naruto said before landing with Itachi behind Gamaiwa.

"Sure thing, kid! Earth Style: Mountain Terrian!" Gamaiwa yelled before slamming his hands/toad appendages onto the ground. The entire terrain changed as he did, rising up into the air to resemble a miniature mountain range. Haru was stuck with his head sticking out because of Gamaiwa's greater control over the earth disabling him from being able to move through it.

Itachi threw a well placed kunai towards Haru that was blocked by a kunai thrown from the side. Both Naruto and Itachi whirled to the side in order to escape the large amount of earth projectiles that fell where they were just standing. Both of them followed the thrown weapons back to their source and were surprised to see an average looking jonin glaring at them threateningly.

"I'll kill you two for hurting my sensei." The newcomer yelled out before rushing towards Naruto and Itachi. Itachi underestimated her attack and was struck in the chest by an earth-enhanced kick that sent him flying into a tree across the clearing, until he turned into a murder of crows and reappeared next to the girl and attempted to swipe at her exposed neck. The two engaged in a heated kenjutsu match that looked so unorganized that Naruto choose to stay out of it. He looked towards their prisoner, and was surprised to be forced to block a kick from Haru that would have taken his head clear off. Gamaiwa must have been more exhausted than he let on and went back to Mount Myoboku to recover.

While Itachi and his new opponent were busy dualing it out in a kenjutsu match, Naruto was being forced on the defensive by the savage taijutsu Haru was unleashing. Haru was practically looking like a wild animal with his wild and untimed attacks that were filled with so much power that caused him to fall off balance every time Naruto dodged instead of blocked. Pretty soon, Naruto decided that he had been on the defensive enough and pretended to fall on his back. Haru quickly seized this opportunity and sank his kunai deep inside Naruto's neck, he was so happy he avenged Tonfi, that he didn't notice that the "Naruto" he had stabbed was merely an illusion, the simplest of ninja tricks. By the time Haru actually heard the powerful whirling sound behind him, it was too late. Haru screamed as Naruto's Rasengan grated into his back and sent him spinning into a tree, dead.

"Sensei! No!" the jonin yelled before she lost her concentration and charged at Itachi, blinded by rage at the loss of her sensei. All it took was a small fire jutsu right at her face to temporarily stun her before she lost track of Itachi and felt the cool sensation of steel running across her neck before everything went black.

"Whew! That was one tough match." Naruto said before drawing all the Chakra out of the bodies and giving it back to him and Itachi.

"We are both tired, and in no condition to fight another tonight. Let's set up camp."

"Agreed." Naruto replied before he set about gathering wood for a fire, while Itachi got water from a nearby stream.

They both unsealed their camping equipment from special scrolls, along with some meat to cook.

It was overall a very successful day, and Naruto and Itachi slept well that night.

The next day, the duo set out once again in the pursuit of more ninjas to kill. Luckily for them, or unlucky depending on your viewpoint, it was almost no time at all before they located their next contact, a man named Roshi. Roshi and a small battalion of Rock nin were squaring off against an equally large group of Leaf ninja. Neither side looked like they were making much progress, but that all changed when Roshi quickly decimated the two ninja he was fighting and had shot out lava from his mouth that killed roughly one fourth of the Leaf forces.

"Careful, Itachi. That's the four-tails Jinjurikii. The reports say that he can spit out lava and can easily switch into his bijuu mode. This is going to be the first S-class nin we have fought." Naruto said while slightly trembling in excitement. This would become a testament to his and Itachi's skills, but it could also be the end of their short lives if they weren't strong enough. Either way, one side would be losing it's top shinobi, if not both.

With a small Shunshin, Naruto and Itachi appeared before Roshi, the rest of the forces having wiped themselves out.

"Ah, the Hokage's son and the genius from the Uchiha clan. Though I do detest fighting, I suppose ending you both here and now will save many lives on my part. I do hope that you two are ready to challenge me because I would hate to be disappointed." Roshi calmly said, as if discussing a trivial matter.

"Do not worry, Roshi-san. We are quiet capable shinobi, and after we have defeated you, Han is next." Itachi replied.

"Ah, my fellow Jinjurikki, Han. Host of the five-tails. I do wish you luck if you are able to survive this fight, Han has always been far stronger than I. Whereas I pride myself as being a capable shinobi, I have no trained extensively into the ground every day like Han. I do, however, know a thing or two about fighting, so without any further delay…" Roshi trailed off before settling into a fighting stance resembling an ape.

"Of course." Naruto said, settling into his taijutsu stance as well.

"Let us begin." Itachi said before rushing towards Roshi and swinging a leg around in order to knock him off balance. Naruto jumped in the air to meet Roshi after he jumped Itachi's attack, and with that one of the most critical battles of the war had begun.


	8. Chapter 8

Child of Prophecy

Chapter 8

Roshi stared down at the two bodies lying at his feet with remorse. Those two kids were tough, and he couldn't pull any punches. The fight had cost him dearly, he didn't think that he would be able to fight for at least a week. 'Sucks being older, and not recovering as fast. Roshi turned around and began walking away. He only was able to take two steps before he heard a crack behind him. He turned around so fast to see…

Flashback

_ Naruto and Roshi met in the air with fists and legs flailing on both sides, neither one managing to score a hit. Soon enough, both backed off and Itachi jumped in with his tanto slashing. Even though Roshi was not prone to using kenjutsu, he had learned how to deal with a kenjutsu user; thus able to dodge or deflect most, if not all, of Itachi's strikes. _

_ "It seems that you hold up to the S-class rank, Roshi-san." Itachi stated dryly._

_ "Well, I have been around for quite a while, kids. You don't live this long in the Shinobi career without being strong." Roshi replied, not even slightly winded with the intense fighting Naruto and Itachi put him through._

_ Instead of replying, Naruto bit his thumbs and flew through a succession of seals, followed closely by his hand slamming on the ground. _

_ "Summoning Jutsu: Gamakiri!" Naruto yelled before a toad twice the size of him appeared in a puff of smoke. _

_ "Gamakiri, listen up. This guy uses lava style techniques, so as soon as you see one, I'll need you to counter it with some water."_

_ "Got it, Boss!"The blue-looking toad called out before jumping slightly behind them._

_ Itachi, meanwhile, was distracting Roshi with a flurry of swipes with his tanto. Eventually, Itachi was able to distract Roshi's eyesight long enough for Naruto to sneak inside his guard and deliver a powerful kick that sent Roshi back a couple meters. _

_ Roshi jumped up to his feet and, after speeding through handseals of his own, spewed lava at high speeds towards Naruto and Itachi. Before it could make contact, however, it was solidified by an equal powerful jet of water, courtesy of Gamakiri. _

_ Relishing the look of surprise on Roshi's face when he finally noticed the toad, Naruto threw a couple kunai to distract him while Itachi went in for the kill. A busy Roshi was only just able to dodge Itachi's sneak attack by swiviling on his feet. The slash still made contact, though it was no where near as fatal as it would have been. _

_ Roshi roared into the sky in pain. He then turned and swiped at Itachi, but little did he know that he was already under a genjutsu from Itachi, and missed by a long shot. His tenant quickly broke him out of the genjutsu just in time to dodge a kick from Naruto that would have crippled his neck. He safely backed up and planned out his next move. _

_ Suddenly, Roshi jumped towards them and launched a far larger river of lava at Naruto and Itachi. Gamakiri respond just like he know it would, and the area was now filled with steam. 'Let's see if your Sharingan powers work now, Uchiha boy.' And just like that, Roshi disappeared from sight._

_ "Itachi, let's go with plan C!"_

_ "Right!"_

_ "Gamakiri, return to Mount Myoboku. Shinra Tensei!" _

_ And all the steam was blown away, giving the duo a clear sight of Roshi. Roshi looked at them both before wondering why one of the Uchiha's eyes were shut tight. Before he could ponder it, he was suddenly unable to move, and was lifted in the air. _

_ Naruto was struggling to keep him levitated. Roshi was far more powerful than the other shinobi he tried this on. His hand was outstretched as he used his Deva Path to control the gravity around Roshi._

_ Roshi was surprised to see the Uchiha's eye open, and blood leaked out. He realized that something big was coming, so he transformed into his Chakra Cloak and thrust all four tails in front of him. He was not a moment too soon because he heard Itachi say "Amaterasu," and black flames just appeared on his tails. _

_ Even inside his Chakra Cloak, Roshi started sweating from the sheer heat that was raidiating off of the flames. He let go of the connection to his Chakra Cloak, and it fell to the ground and disappeared; taking the black flames along with it. _

_ "Unfortunate." Itachi said as he wiped the blood off of his cheek. _

_ "Sorry kids, but it looks like I'm going to have to go full strength against you. I don't have much control in this form, but at least we are far enough away from my comrades that I don't accidentally kill them." Roshi mumbled before he started enlarging, his skin beginning to grow red. _

_ Before too long, Naruto and Itachi were witness to the first Bijuu they had the honor, (read misfortune), of fighting. With a terrifying roar, the Yonbi pounded the ground in a very ape-like fashion before narrowing it's eyes at Naruto and Itachi. _

_ "Good thing we put that sight and sound genjutsu up, or else this area would be flocked with enemy nin right about now." Naruto chuckled._

_ Itachi didn't bother responding because they had other pressing matters to attend to; such as, the Yonbi's enlarged fist heading straight down at them. _

_ Naruto knew that blocking with Shinra Tensei would be a huge mistake, so they both just jumped on top of the hand and ran up it's arm. When they got too close, another hand came down to stop them; however, Naruto jumped up on that one while Itachi just dodged and continued running up the first one. When Naruto was close enough, he jumped right in front of it's face and yelled "Shinra Tensei," causing the beast to fall onto it's back. _

_ Once the beast hit the floor, Itachi once again prepared to use Amaterasu. The black flames shot at the beast's head just as it spit a glob of lava at him. The resounding explosion was enough to cancel out both high powered attacks. The fight continued like this for awhile, Naruto even attempting to use Planetary Devastation without much effect because the Yonbi would just fire a tailed beast bomb at the orb, which would cause it to erupt prematurely._

_ Eventually, Naruto and Itachi were both panting and crouching on the ground, Roshi turned back into a human, most of his strength gone as well. Roshi covered them both in cooled lava, causing them to be frozen in their place, with only their heads free. Roshi looked them both in their eyes before throwing kunai at their heads, killing them._

_Flashback End_

…a sky that was painted red. He looked around and realized that he couldn't move. He wasn't restricted, but for some reason he was unable to control his limbs. Suddenly, the voice of the Uchiha came from behind him. Since he was unable to move, all he could do was stand terrified as the voice neared him. The last thing he heard was "Welcome to Tsukuyomi," and he saw a pair of Sharingan eyes before he felt a large pain in his heart, and his world went black.

Back in the real world, Naruto and Itachi were standing over the former body of Roshi, a kunai in his heart. A poof was heard as the clone that hid before the battle even started was dispersed, his job to free Naruto and Itachi from the cool lava complete. Naruto was extremely thankfully that he had taken the advice from Itachi to leave a clone free in case of emergencies.

"That was too close!" Naruto panted, his adrenaline vanishing now that the battle was over.

"Lucky that he forgot to avoid looking into my eyes, or else we would have been finished for sure." Itachi replied, lying on the floor in exhaustion.

"Let's just rest here a bit. That fight took a couple hours, and I need to gather some strength back before we go hunting for the remaining 3. At our current Chakra levels, we wouldn't last against Han or Jonbi, we could, however, take on Lee. The report here says that Lee will be located on the southeastern line, a day's walk away. Han will be on the Northeastern line, a week away. Jonbi is way back in Iwa territory. He isn't that particularly strong, it's just that he is the tactician of the entire Chuunin forces and will be hidden inside a strong hold." Itachi recited.

"Yea, two hours, then we should head towards Lee. I estimate we will meet up with him by mid-after noon tomorrow if we're lucky." Naruto replied before shutting his eyes as well.

A few hours passed, and Naruto and Itachi gathered up their supplies and set off in the direction of Lee, intent on once again, ending a man's life because of a mission.

That is what upset Naruto the most about this assignment. Sure he was killing these men in the name of Konoha, and saving many lives in the process, but killing these people for the sole reason that they were powerful enough to harm their chances of winning this war made Naruto want to throw up. Once more, Naruto cursed the stupidity of this war, and the stupidity of Onoki.

The trip was passed by in silence, since the enemy could very well have posted listening scouts. They only had a couple close calls with running into enemy forces; although, they were almost always able to hide until the force passed by, almost.

"We know you're there Leaf scum, so come on out and we promise to make your deaths quick." A women in charge of a group of Rock ninja called out into the dark woods. It was just passed sundown, and the trees seemed to ominously loom over them more than usual.

"Sargent, I'm sure that there's no reason for us to stop. I don't sense anyone hiding in the forest." A young man spoke to the Sargent.

"Are you questioning my orders, cadet?" the Sargent whispered, though the intimidation carried the words all the way to where Naruto and Itachi were hiding, deep underground.

The enemy has always used this hiding method in the past; however, their arrogance that no Leaf nin knew the same trick cost them dearly when two cadets were pulled underground and killed. Unfortunately, one of them was able to yell out in time, and alerted the Rock ninja of the attack.

"Rock nin, scatter!" The Sargent yelled before disappearing herself. They would have gotten away from Naruto and Itachi had they ben regular leaf nin, but Naruto and Itachi are special. They both have a dojutsu that allows for them to see Chakra Signatures even through solid objects. With no sound at all, Naruto and Itachi set about removing all witnesses. The forest echoed with the screams of the victims. Naruto and Itachi weren't cruel in their killing, the enemy was just very scared of them.

Once all the witnesses were decimated, Naruto and Itachi once again set off on their journey towards Lee. Luckily for them, no one else managed to sense them, and they were able to make to all the way without anyone noticing.

Lee, who had always prided himself on being cautious, was busy scanning the countryside, wary of any threat. He was only an A-class ninja, but his exceptional caution has kept him alive far longer than any of his childhood friends, who had all passed away by now. His skills centered around the standard Rock nin skill set; although, the thing that made him different was that he was a member of the Yangure Clan. The Yangure were all part of the shinobi system in Iwagakure, but only he really excelled in their clan jutsu. The Yangure Clan was not very well known throughout the elemental nations since they were a smaller clan and less powerful, but their special skill could be used to unmeasurable proportions. All of the Yangure's had the disintegration skill; they could completely break down anything they touched into tiny particles. The main difference between this Clan technique and Onoki's Particle disintegration was that they had to have contact with whatever they were disintegrating, and it took at least 10 seconds of contact to complete kill someone. Only Lee was able to truly master the skill, by controlling the disintegration to target the motor cortex in the brain first; thus rendering the victim incapable of movement.

Lee was cautious, but he was a bit of a sadist. Always choosing to make his target suffer in terror before finally ending it. This would be the only man that Naruto and Itachi had to kill that truly deserved what they were going to do to him. The only problem with the whole plan was that Lee had safely hidden inside a campsite filled with around 200 average rock ninja.

It would take awhile to infiltrate their security in order to get close enough to kill Lee. They had about three days to spare, which they used to successfully infiltrate the camp, and get close to Lee.

It was about time for Lee to end the day and go to bed. He stood up from his desk where he had been working on a new strategy to combat this group of ninja that had killed his top soldiers. Even Roshi, he heard, was killed by this group. He figured that Han would be next, and vowed to send a letter the following morning to alert Han of the threat. As Lee exited his office, he went ridgid as his sense kept telling him that something was off.

"Commander Lee," a disguised Naruto said, "heading to bed already?"

"Why yes, Hanri, I was actually on my way now." Lee replied, feeling better that there was another person in the hallway.

"Very well, I shall see you tomorrow Commander Lee." "Hanri" replied before walking around the corner out of sight.

Lee had some trouble getting to his room, as he chose to take an alternate route in order to throw off this bad vibe he was getting. Finally, he entered his room and locked the door behind him. He turned on a lamp and was suddenly shown the sight of a poorly maintained bedroom. It always irked him how he could never get good staff to fix his room properly while he was busy working. He went into the bathroom to wash his face before bed. When he closed his eyes and bent down to wash his face, a pair of Sharingan eyes stood staring back at the mirror from right behind him.

Lee suddenly shot up and turned around, but no one was there, the bathroom was empty except for him. 'Stupid nerves, always acting up when they shouldn't be.' Lee thought to himself as he crawled into bed. A sound from under his bed caught his attention, so he peered over the edge into the darkness below. FROM UNDERNEATH THE BED CAME… nothing. This time Lee forced himself to ignore every eerie sound that was coming from all over the room.

The phrase "silence is deafening" held true, because when the noises stopped, the bedroom became far more intense and nerve wracking. Lee felt something prick his nose, and opened his eyes to see two glowing blue eyes with a rippling design on them that radiated sheer power. So terror-stricken was Lee, that he didn't even make a sound as a kunai was plunged into his heart, and he was killed.

"Itachi, come down from the ceiling, it's over." Naruto said with a smile.

"I usually don't take pleasure in killing, but this man definitely had it coming with all the torture he put people through." Itachi said with a smirk, scaring this man was too much fun.

"Well, I guess that leaves Han and Jonbi. Which do you think we should hit first?" Naruto asked.

"Well, considering that we actually know where Jonbi is at, not Han, I think we should hit him first."

"Another stealth mission, Itachi?"

"Yes, just because you prefer all out warfare, doesn't mean that we all do. I actually enjoy stealth assassinations." Itachi stated with a smirk.

"Help me get this body off the bed, Itachi. We will actually be able to sleep in a nice bed for once."

The two were able to lay reverse ways, Itachi's feet were near Naruto's head and vice versa, and had the best sleep of their entire campaign so far. Beware Jonbi, two exceptionally skilled ninja are after your head.


End file.
